Delta Ends Codesharing With Aeroflot
In a terse statement issued this morning, Delta says it has immediately ended its codeshare relationship with Russia’s primary state-owned airline, Aeroflot. Though no reason was given, it’s safe to assume this is in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If not, this is a truly remarkable coincidence.
Aeroflot has been a member of the SkyTeam alliance which Delta co-founded for more than 15 years. Delta had increased its cooperation by placing its code on Aeroflot’s flights beyond Moscow while Aeroflot had its code on Delta short-haul services from both Los Angeles and New York/JFK. The alliance membership remains, but now the codesharing has ended.
Russia owns more than half of Aeroflot. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Aeroflot will naturally be a target for those looking to publicly protest Russia’s actions. Whether it has any impact remains to be seen, but for those of you looking to spend winter in Siberia on a Delta codeshare, you are probably out of luck.
Virgin Atlantic Restores Full Pre-Pandemic US Network
Virgin Atlantic will resume flying to Seattle and Washington/Dulles next week, and when it does, it will have returned to its full slate of flying to the United States from prior to the pandemic, ensuring plenty of empty planes until the summer leisure travel season arrives.
London/Heathrow to Dulles will begin March 5 and operate 5x-weekly on an A330-300. Seattle begins three days earlier on March 2 and will also be 5x-weekly, operating on a B787-9. In addition to resuming these two routes, the carrier will also increase frequency and capacity to Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York/JFK, and San Francisco.
Virgin Atlantic begins operating to its newest American destination, Austin, with 4x-weekly flights on May 25. Beginning in April, it will fly to Orlando from four UK airports – London/Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Belfast.
United Objects to CodeshAAre Opportunity for Philippines Airlines
American Airlines efforts to garner government approval for a codeshare on eight domestic routes from LAX with Philippines Airlines continue to be held up by United Airlines. The two carriers first applied for the codeshare nearly two years and ago and are still waiting on a resolution while UA continues to lobby against the tie-up.
The partnership would apply on AA’s flights to eight cities from LAX: Atlanta, Denver, Houston/Intercontinental, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, and Washington/Dulles. It would not apply to PR’s flights from the Philippines to the mainland United States – but AA would put its code on flights from Manila to Honolulu and Guam.
United’s objection is based on its own unresolved slot issues in Manila, insisting the DOT wait for that to conclude before ruling on the codeshare application. AA and PR unsurprisingly don’t care about UA’s problem in Manila and want the DOT to move forward, and have offered United Philippine’s exclusive adobo recipe as compensation, but UA is unmoved at this juncture.
- Aeroflot announced it was suspending its service to both Dublin and London/Heathrow which feels an awful lot like a “you can’t fire me, I quit” situation.
- Atlas Air is executing a $200 million share buyback program to raise some cash.
- British Airways will no longer overfly any Russian airspace for its limited current service to Asia.
- Delta suspended its codeshare agreement with Aeroflot effective immediately.
- Emirates is angry at Boeing.
- IAG and its airlines expect a return to great profits in the near future, according to IAG and its airlines.
- Luxair will wet-lease an E190 for use this summer.
- Qantas is working on a scheme to offer stock options to front-line staff.
- SAS is searching between the seat cushions to save cash.
- SWISS has a new premium economy seat.
- Thai is optimistic that it will rebound and recover financially, according to Thai.
- Ukraine International has now suspended flights through February 27, which is a move that can be categorized as “wildly optimistic.”
- Wizz Air is hiring pilots and flight attendants.
Which is faster, hot or cold?
Hot. Because you can catch a cold.