Billy Nolen to Serve as Interim FAA Administrator
Billy Nolen, currently the FAA’s Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, will take the role of Interim Administrator effective this Friday. Current administrator Steve Dickson announced he would step down from the role earlier this year, effective this Thursday, March 31.
Nolen joined the FAA in January after leaving WestJet where he served as the Vice President of Safety, Security and Quality. Prior to joining WestJet, he was a B757, B767, and MD-80 pilot at American before moving into flight safety and oversight at the carrier. Nolen oversees 7,600 employees in his current role at the FAA and will take on greater responsibility as the Interim Administrator where he plans to do everything he can to ensure no aircraft ever get certified again.
The #2 at the FAA, Bradley Mims will take an expanded role during the interim period, primarily focused on workforce issues and airports – one item on his plate will be to finally figure out why parking at the airport is always so expensive.
JetBlue Pleads with FAs to Show Up to Work
In an e-mail to flight attendants, JetBlue implored its flight attendants to show up for work and not refuse assignments, highlighting the delicate nature of the carrier’s operation as the busy spring and summer travel season approaches.
JetBlue is in the midst of hiring hundreds of new flight attendants but will not have enough in place before the summer. It is also hiring another 5,000 employees in New York City who will be responsible for calling all the passengers on canceled flights after the flight attendants fail to show up, which will add to the 8,000 staff it currently has in the city. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said it would be the largest hiring push in the carrier’s history.
The new jobs will support a increase in daily flights to and from New York from 200 to 300 – a 50% increase – as the carrier grows its Northeast Alliance with American. When flights aren’t canceled, most of the new staff are being hired to explain to assist JetBlue frequent fliers when flying on AA and understanding American’s 28-zone boarding process.
Gatwick Reopens South Terminal
London/Gatwick reopened its South Terminal Sunday for the first time in two years after the terminal was shuttered in the summer of 2020. The opening was delayed so that the staff could clear out all the rats that had hitched a ride on JetBlue from New York airports after the LaGuardia renovation was completed.
The airport is expecting an uptick in traffic with the new terminal open, up to 80,000 passengers a day this week, with that number topping 150,000 by the summer. With the terminal opening, Gatwick will nearly double the number of daily flights it operates from 300 to 570.
Seven airlines are operating from the reopened South Terminal: Air Malta, Aurigny, Eastern, Iberia Express, Norwegian, TAP, and Wizz Air. Most of those appear to be real airlines. BA and Vueling will also begin moving their operations to the South Terminal later this week.
- Air France-KLM is sticking it to travel agents.
- Air Sphinx is buried in paperwork, so it chose to push back its planned launch to later this year.
- Bamboo Airways selected Revima to provide landing gear for its A320 and A321 aircraft. Most passengers are just happy the carrier chose anyone to provide landing gear.
- Buffalo Airways, a cargo airline based not in Buffalo but in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (YZF), acquired its first B737.
- Cape Air has asked to reduce its schedule for five Montana EAS destinations for a temporary, indefinite period.
- Etihad‘s A350 will make its debut this week as the paint has finally dried on its livery. It begins service with a special inaugural route from Abu Dhabi to Paris/CDG on Thursday.
- Eurowings opened a new base in Stockholm.
- Frontier CEO Barry Biffle expects the mask mandate to be dropped for good on April 18 for all humans but made no guarantee for animals painted on the outside of airplanes.
- Pobeda grounded 16 B737s to preserve the parts of those aircraft to service other aircraft. That seems like a profitable long-term strategy.
- Qantas wants to see for itself if everything is bigger in Texas, adding a second flight to the airport — this time from Melbourne — with 4x-weekly service beginning December 2.
- Southern Airways acquired St. Louis-based Air Choice One.
- Sri Lankan woke up over the weekend and decided to join the rest of the world in banning flights to Russia.
- STARLUX took delivery of a new A321neo. It is leasing the plane from Aviation Capital Group which threw the floormats in as part of the lease at no additional charge.
- TAME Ecuador has put six planes up for sale after its employee bake sale did not raise the $16 million the carrier needs.
- United slaps Delta around in a filing to the DOT with regards to who should be awarded frequencies to Cape Town.
- Vistara‘s flight from Delhi to London/Heathrow will upgrade to daily service on May 1.
I went to McDonalds today and ordered two large fries.
They gave me about 100 tiny ones instead.