Spirit Rolls the Dice on Three More from Vegas
Spirit Airways announced three new destinations from its growing operating in Las Vegas today, sending its bright yellow and fee-filled aircraft to three new dots on its destination map.
Albuquerque, Boise, and Reno will all join the Spirit family after having paid the requisite fees and surcharges to the carrier with daily service (twice daily to Reno) from Las Vegas beginning late this summer. Albuquerque’s daily flight to Vegas will begin August 3, Boise on August 5, and Reno’s twice daily flights start August 10.
The trio of cities join Memphis and Salt Lake City which will see new service on Spirit from LAS this spring. Memphis daily flights begin April 20, with Salt Lake City’s double daily flights begin May 26.
BA Rolls Back End of Mask Mandate
Within hours of ending its mask mandate, British Airways is reportedly not ready to go through with it, as the carrier will continue to require passengers to wear masks on-board for the time being.
It’s being reported that the carrier was putting its new policy on hold while looking into unspecified “compliance issues,” that would keep the mask mandate in place for the time being. BA’s tweet that the mask mandate would be removed effective today is still up on Twitter, but it’s possible the airline’s social team took the day off for St. Patrick’s Day Eve and just didn’t get the memo.
Other British airlines including Jet2, TUI, and Virgin Atlantic have stuck with their mask mandates being removed, as has London/Heathrow, BA’s home airport.
U.S. Senate Votes to End Mask Mandate
The United States Senate voted 57-40 in a largely symbolic vote for the federal government to end mask requirements on public transportation including on planes and at airports. In other words, the outcome will be the same as with British Airways… keep you mask on for now.
Despite the 57-40 yes vote in the Senate, the bill is 10 votes shy of a two-thirds majority that would be able to overcome a veto from the president. It also would be unlikely to pass in the House of Representatives.
The mask mandate was extended last week to April 18, a date many think will be the actual end of the mandate after its been extended several times. Airlines themselves began requiring masks in the late spring of 2020 during the early days of the pandemic, with the federal mandate coming online in January of 2021 after President Biden took office.
- Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov was removed from the IATA board of governors.
- Air Serbia is scaling back its number of flights to Russia as it signals it wants to rejoin the rest of the world.
- Air Transat will receive an additional $34 million in aid from the Canadian government.
- British Airways added another £100 to its current surcharge on Club World seats purchased through Avios.
- Eswatini Air added its first aircraft, an E145.
- Lufthansa‘s first A321 cargo flight operated yesterday from Frankfurt to Dublin and Manchester.
- Malaysia will resume flying to London/Heathrow on March 27 with 11 weekly flights. It will increase to double daily on June 30.
- Mokulele Airlines expects to nab its first Saab 340 next month.
- Norse Atlantic confirmed that one of its execs named Bjørn was able to secure slots at London/Gatwick.
- Qantas will offer every seat on every flight to New Zealand in May at its lowest award redemption levels. Rex will be filing a complaint with the government shortly.
- Qatar will resume flying to London/Gatwick on June 5. The daily flight will be operated by a B787 Dreamliner.
- Solomon Airlines is resuming domestic flights.
- South African will be upgauging several domestic routes to widebody aircraft.
- Ukraine International Airlines extended its suspension of service through at least April 15.
- Virgin Atlantic will not return to London/Gatwick this year.
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