FAA Administrator Resigns
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson announced today he would retire from the position, effective March 31. Dickson was appointed to the post in August 2019 by President Trump following a 30-year career with Delta as a pilot and SVP of Flight Operations.
Dickson’s time at the FAA began just prior to the grounding of the B737 MAX, and continued through the pandemic, staffing shortages that resulted because of it, the rise in passenger violence, and the 5G fiasco. His term was supposed to last five years, but will instead come to an end at the halfway mark, once again sticking to the Delta motto of trying to be early every time.
Dickson famously piloted a B737 MAX himself in September 2019 after saying he would not consider recertifying the airplane until he flew one himself. The approval to return the plane to the skies came about a year later – in late 2020.
President Biden will now need to appoint a new FAA Administrator to fill the void. White House officials are remaining tight-lipped about rumors that the position will be raffled off to a winner at next week’s Cranky Network Awards.
Breeze Blows Harder Into Hartford
Breeze Airways is making Hartford’s Bradley International Airport the fifth base in its network — one more than allowed on a baseball field – with the addition of eight new nonstop destinations, bringing the total it operates to from BDL to 12.
The announcement comes one day after fellow startup Avelo announced an expansion at nearby New Haven (HVN). The eight new destinations Breeze is adding will remain a secret for now, as the airline is supposedly not finished throwing dots at its map of the east coast.
Breeze currently serves Charleston, SC, Columbus, Norfolk, and Pittsburgh from BDL and will have its new fleet of A220s operating on all four routes beginning this June.
Oh Good, Another Icelandic Startup
We’ve got a new Icelandic startup airline, this time the pleasantly named Niceair, which plans to launch operations this summer with one 150-seat A319 it has on lease.
The airline expects to begin ticket sales early this spring, which makes sense if it wants to have a chance to survive as an airline. The carrier’s operating license would be held by a mystery European carrier – fingers crossed its ITA.
Initially, it plans to operate to the UK, Denmark, and Spain – according to CEO Þorvaldur Lúðvík Sigurjónsson. It will base itself not at Iceland’s largest airport in Reykjavik, but instead at Akureyri Airport (AEY) in northern Iceland. If it follows previous Icelandic-airline patterns, it will soon overextend itself, buy too many big airplanes, and then go out of business.
The airport currently has 4x-daily service on Icelandair to Reykjavik, and regional service on Norlandair. In addition to the international destination, Niceair is also planning domestic service on the bustling route to Egilsstadir (EGS) in eastern Iceland.
- Aeromexico will return to London on April 1 with 5x-weekly service to London/Heathrow.
- Atlas Air is adding a new B747-8 freighter.
- Azores Airlines is adding a wet-leased B767 this fall.
- Bees Airline is no longer buzzing around after it was grounded this week.
- Cathay Pacific carried just 24,699 passengers total in January.
- Emirates will return A380 service to Brisbane next month.
- flynas added Prague as its newest destination with 3x-weekly service beginning May 1.
- LIAT expects to exit bankruptcy by the middle of this year.
- Malta Air is opening a new base in Vienna.
- PIA wants to fly to Australia.
- Rex wants to add lots of airplanes.
- Uzbekistan Airways took delivery of its first A321neo(LR).
Light travels faster than sound.
That’s why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.