May 5, 2022

Spirit Closes First Quarter with $195 Million Loss

Spirit Airlines’s Q1 earnings report was released today to those willing to pay its $11 earning report access fee, and it showed a loss of $195 million for the carrier on revenues just shy of $1 billion.

Capacity was up 19% compared to Q1 in 2019 with load factor at 77.2%, a drop from 82.7% in 2019. The gross revenue figure of $967 million was up 13% from three years ago despite TRASM being down 5%. Spirit raked in $113.72 per passenger per flight segment, of which $9 could be attributed to the fare and the rest to fees.

The carrier took delivery of three new A320neos during the quarter, leaving it with 176 planes in its fleet and millions of gallons of yellow paint. To raise revenue for Q2, Spirit is planning a giant game of tug ‘o war on the taxiway at its FLL hub between 30 staff members from both JetBlue and Frontier with the winner getting to purchase Spirit. The event will be available on in-flight pay-per-view for $39.99.

Spirit ended the quarter with $1.6 billion in unrestricted cash and a stock room full of Buzzballz.

Sun Country Turned a Profit!

All is not lost in the world of Q1 earnings reports, as Sun Country became the envy of airlines from sea to shining sea, turning a profit of a cool $3.6 million during the first three months of 2022.

How did Sun Country do it? It earned $226.5 million in gross revenue and spent a grand total of zero dollars attempting to buy, merge with, or fend off a takeover attempt from a fellow LCC – a rarity in the industry these days. The carrier celebrated the occasion by formally beginning proceedings to purchase Frontier, JetBlue, and Spirit to form one ULCC conglomerate.

The gross revenue figure of $226.5 million was up 15% from Q1 2019. Of that increase, $21 million comes from its cargo operation which the carrier did not have in 2019. Sun Country finished the quarter with $272 million in cash – down 12% from the $309 million it ended 2021 with — and thousands of gallons of deicing liquid it needs to store somewhere at MSP until next winter.

Virgin Atlantic Flight Returns to London

Virgin Atlantic Flight 3 from London/Heathrow to New York/JFK turned back to London about 30 minutes after takeoff this past Monday, May 2 due to a paperwork error for the First Officer operating the flight.

The aircraft was just off the east coast of Ireland when the decision was made to turn around because the flight’s FO had not completed the final assessment flight that Virgin Atlantic requires. To be clear, the FO – and captain for that matter – were fully qualified to operate the flight, as this was not a Pakistan situation. Instead, the FO was in violation of internal Virgin Atlantic protocols and the carrier chose to return the flight to London and swap FOs out of an overabundance of caution.

The pilot needed one more training flight, and the captain operating VS 3, despite having flown for the carrier since 2004, was not qualified as a training captain. The plane ended up landing at LHR about 90 minutes after it left, swapped first officers, and continued on its way to New York.

  • Air Cairo is beginning 3x-weekly flights between Sharm el Sheikh (SSH) and Tel Aviv.
  • Cape Air will end service to both Quincy, IL (UIN) and Burlington, IA (BRL) due to a lack of pilots and no confirmation that these two places actually exist.
  • Comair (the South African version) will not consider staff layoffs as a way to cut costs, but will look for other options, potentially to include selling mangos on-board to steal market share among former Mango customers.
  • Delta formally announced plans to open exclusive Delta One lounges at JFK (in 2023) and LAX (in 2024). What’s old is new again.
  • Ellinair will receive €6.8 million in aid from the Greek government once it staves off a legal challenge to the aid package by Ryanair.
  • JetBlue‘s codeshare with Etihad was approved by the DOT.
  • Qantas agreed to purchase Alliance Aviation.
  • Skymark Airlines will debut another Pokémon-themed aircraft on May 30.
  • South African interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo is removing the interim tag from his title and the CEO tag as well as he resigned his position.
  • Thai AirAsia X now plans to resume passenger ops on June 1.

What’s the easiest way to burn 1000 calories? Leave the pizza in the oven