Author: Andrew Bashuk

There will be no Cranky Daily on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. We wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. Your regularly-scheduled airline-related snark will return on Tuesday.

Aloha Means Goodbye: Hawaiian Ends ‘Ohana

There’s one fewer member of the Hawaiian Airlines ‘ohana — that’s “family” in the Hawaiian language — now that it’s been announced that ‘Ohana by Hawaiian will be shut down, 7 years after it was first launched.

‘Ohana — which was operated by Idaho-based Empire Airlines — had operated both passenger and cargo services on behalf of Hawaiian on smaller interisland routes, but it was forced to suspend service last year. The airline’s pilot contract required the discontinuation of outsourced flying if mainline hours dropped, and drop they did thanks to the pandemic.

The airline offered Hawaiian’s only service to Molokai, Lānaʻi, and Kapalua on West Maui using ATR 42 aircraft. Service between Honolulu and Kapalua was suspended last March at the beginning of the pandemic, but the rest of the flying did not go away until several months later. Freighter service with ATR 72 aircraft was suspended last November and will also not return.

Now, Mokulele will be the only passenger operator at those airports. Hawaiian has already begun transporting its ATR fleet to the mainland for storage and sale, but it remains unclear if the ‘ukulele that was kept onboard each aircraft stayed behind.

Southwest Postpones Return of Alcohol Sales

Southwest Airlines is holding off the return of booze to its beverage service after several incidents with unruly passengers has caused the airline to rethink its plan to resume alcohol sales next week.

There has been an uptick in in-flight incidents, most notably an assault by a passenger on a Southwest flight last week that sent a Southwest flight attendant to the hospital. The airline’s decision will remain indefinitely as it reevaluates its onboard service. In the meantime, residents of the Dallas metro area can take advantage of a BOGO beer, wine, and liquor sale at Southwest’s headquarters near Love Field. Shoppers with non-expired Southwest drink coupons can also enjoy a complimentary cocktail while perusing the sale items.

Most U.S. airlines have brought alcohol service back in one manner or another, with American being the lone mainland hold out in its economy cabin. AA is offering cocktails to its first and business class customers, but has no timetable to return alcoholic beverages behind the curtain where it’s needed most.

Norse Atlantic Makes Friends with Flight Attendant Union

Norse Atlantic Airways, a new airline being started by three guys named Bjørn, announced a deal with the largest flight attendant union in the United States.

The airline is doing a 180 compared to its long-haul predecessor, Norwegian, when it comes to labor relations. Norse Atlantic has agreed to hire over 700 U.S.-based flight attendants, providing them with “industry-leading” starting pay and job protections, healthcare, 401k, company branded keychains, stress balls, travel mug after working their 10th transatlantic flight, and other benefits.

The move by the airline will also quiet several of its skeptics amongst U.S. lawmakers that were pushing to deny their airline the regulatory approval to operate to the United States. With the Association of Flight Attendants supporting the airline, its main obstacle will now be convincing lawmakers the airline won’t be a drag on everyone it touches with the exception of bankruptcy lawyers like its predecessor. 

British Airways Doubles Award Seat Guarantee

British Airways is increasing the number of customers who will have the privilege of paying sky-high carrier-imposed surcharges as it doubles the number of Avios award seats it guarantees to be made available per flight.

With the new policy, the number of Avios award seats goes from two to four on Club Europe short-haul business, four to eight on Euro Traveller short-haul economy, two to four on Club World long-haul business class, and four to eight on World Traveller long-haul economy.

Notably absent from the list is the world’s most luxurious business class – BA First – which comes with a guarantee of…zero.

PIA Execs Charged With Corruption

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency filed charges against four former executives of the world’s shadiest airline — Pakistan International Airlines — on charges that they laundered over $8 million dollars through highly-questionable awarding of no-work contracts.

Maqsood Ahmed, PIAs former director of engineering, former chairmen Nasser Jaffer and Irfan Elahi, and former CEO Bernd Hildenbrand arranged for payments to be made to upgrade business class seats (the actual seats, not tickets in business class), entertainment systems, and general cabin refurbs between 2014 and 2016 — but none of the work was ever actually performed. 

In defense of the executives, the airline had been allowing basically anyone to work as a pilot regardless of whether they had training, so one could see why they thought this might be okay. 

They attempted to bribe their way out of the charges, offering the arresting officers vouchers on PIA anywhere the airline files. The arresting officers actually considered the bribe briefly because…Pakistan, but after seeing the airline’s limited route map, they declined and filed the arrest paperwork.

• Air France is returning to Helsinki for the first time since October of 2001. It will fly 4x-weekly service from CDG beginning July 6 before upgrading to daily flights on July 19.
• Air Serbia is launching once-weekly flights between Kraljevo (KVO) and Thessaloniki (SKG) on July 13. A month earlier, on June 15, it will begin twice-weekly flights between Niš (INI) and Tivat (TIV).
• Eurowings plans to wet-lease Embraers from Helvetic Airlines, once again because it was missing all that complexity it tried to cut out previously.
• Flair Airlines took delivery of its first B737-8 aircraft.
• Volotea is increasing its service from Milan/Linate (LIN) adding 4x-weekly flights to both Brindisi (BDS) and Lamezia Terme (SUF) on July 3 and 4, respectively. 

I went into the bookshop and asked the salesperson for a book about turtles. She asked: “Hardback?” and I replied “Yeah, and little heads.”

Breeze Inaugural Flight was a Breeze

Breeze Airways became an actual airline that flies airplanes with people in them today when Breeze Flight 1 operated from Tampa to Charleston, SC before continuing to Hartford.

The inaugural flight departed Tampa this morning at 10:44 am ET and arrived in Charleston at 11:50 am. By all accounts, the plane arrived on time and in one piece, which is generally what people want from their airline on short hops.

Breeze will continue acquiring airplanes this summer, with plans to reach 13 leased aircraft – ten E190s and three E195s – before further fleet expansion. Breeze’s E190s aircraft seat 108 people and its E195s seat 118.

Today’s flight touched two of the airline’s four initial planned bases in Charleston and Tampa. The other two are New Orleans and Norfolk.

Belavia Cancels Flights to Eight Countries

Life just isn’t fair. You hijack one plane with fighter jets and illegally force it to land so you can take a journalist and his girlfriend into custody while endangering the lives of 126 innocent passengers and all of a sudden you’re a pariah in the international aviation community.

Due to this injustice, Belavia, the state-owned flag carrier of Belarus canceled flights to 12 destinations in eight European countries through October 30. The European Union revoked Belavia’s landing privileges on Monday and will not permit the airline – or any other Belarusian airline – to use EU airspace for the indefinite future.

Despite the ban, Belavia Flight 869 to Barcelona took off from Minsk with 54 people on-board yesterday. Barcelona is in Spain, which is in the European Union. To get to Spain, the plane would have to fly through the airspace of other countries, like France, that are in the European Union.

As the plane approached Polish airspace on its journey towards Spain, French ATC would not allow the plane to continue its journey over French airspace. The plane proceeded to circle in a holding pattern on the Belarus/Poland border for nearly two hours before returning to Minsk, completing a 2-hour, 28-minute flight to nowhere. The only positive for the passengers was that the plane was catered for the return flight as well, so at least there was a feast of honey roasted peanuts and flat Diet Sprite.

Spirit of St. Louis Grows, Louisville Too

Today is a big day for Spirit as it begins flying from two new midwestern cities – Louisville and St. Louis. The airline is celebrating by announcing new destinations from the pair to begin this fall.

From St. Louis, Spirit is adding four new destinations to make nine total cities for the airline. Beginning November 17, Spirit will serve Fort Myers, Phoenix, and Tampa with daily flights from St. Louis. The airline will then add Cancun into the mix on December 22, also with daily flights.

Louisville is getting two new destinations – Fort Myers begins on November 17 with 4x-weekly flights and Tampa begins November 18 with 3x-weekly service. Spirit is flying to five cities from Louisville this summer (four at launch today and one more next month), which will leave it with seven total. Spirit will see competition on the Louisville-Tampa route from Southwest and Breeze. The city pair is one of Breeze’s launch routes, with the airline flying its first SDF-TPA flight tomorrow, May 28.

To purchase tickets on the new routes, customers will be responsible for Spirit’s $19 new destination fee. Flights to Florida on Spirit all come with a $29 Spirit Sunshine Fee to cover legal costs for whichever passengers inevitably end up in a physical altercation in the gate area or on the aircraft.

Belize it or Not: Alaska Expands in Central America

Alaska Airlines will begin flying to Belize this fall, with tickets on sale for the new flights today, a little earlier than expected.

The airline will serve Belize City (BZE) the capital of Belize, from both Los Angeles and Seattle with seasonal service beginning November 19 – just in time to escape to the beaches of Belize to avoid your family around the holidays.

Alaska will operate from BZE to Los Angeles with 4x-weekly service and to Seattle with twice weekly flights. Both seasonal routes will operate through May 24, 2022.

We’re Back: Norwegian Emerges from Bankruptcy Protection

Norwegian Air Shuttle officially emerged from bankruptcy protection today with a smaller fleet, most of its debt wiped out, and dozens of bankruptcy lawyers with no idea how to spend their time going forward.

The airline obtained approval in an Oslo Bankruptcy Court for its reconstruction plan last month and has used the time since then to put the plan into action. Mostly this consisted having a giant bonfire celebration with their bills and notices from creditors as kindling while using the warmth from the bonfire to heat their headquarters in Oslo since the electric company cut them off months ago.

The carrier gained the confidence of its creditors in April when the plan was approved, because the creditors realized they didn’t have any other choice. The airline posted a $2 billion loss for FY 2020 which it blames on the pandemic and not its own gross mismanagement.

Norwegian canceled aircraft orders worth $10 billion to reduce its debt to about $2 billion and is now hoping to recall over 1,000 of its furloughed employees at London/Gatwick. As soon as they’re back to work, the airline will begin prepping for its next bankruptcy filing which is expected sometime in mid-2022.

• Air New Zealand will operate 30 weekly cargo flights to 13 international destinations through at least October.
• Air Astana is resuming flights between Atyrau and Amsterdam with weekly flights beginning June 3.
• Air France cancelled its Paris-Moscow flight on Wednesday after Russia declined to approve a new route that would have taken the flight through Russian airspace to bypass flying over Belarus.
• DHL is creating a new cargo airline that will be based in Austria. The airline plans to use Boeing 757 freighter aircraft on intra-European cargo services as soon as it can locate them.
• flydubai is beginning flights from its Dubai hub to Sharm El Sheikh (SSH). SSH will be the airline’s second destination in Egypt and will see three weekly flights beginning June 15.
• JetBlue is resuming service to Worcester, MA (ORH), returning commercial service to the airport for the first time since September. It will operate daily flights to JFK beginning August 19. In October it will increase to twice-daily to JFK and then JetBlue will add daily flights to Fort Lauderdale on October 21. Some flights may actually have paying customers onboard.
• KLM is adding six new destinations this winter including Mombasa (MBA), Orlando, Cancun, Bridgetown (BGI), Port of Spain (POS) and Phuket (HKT). The Orlando route will operate as a triangle route with KLM’s existing flight to Miami.
• Loganair is beginning 5x-weekly flights between Edinburgh and Cardiff from August 2.
• Qatar will no longer be Boeing’s launch customer for the B777X.
• Ryanair, easyJet, and Volotea have been fined a combined $10.5 million by Italy’s competition watchdog authority for flouting consumer protection laws during the pandemic. The airlines were told to make their checks out to ITA.
• United has named Ted (this one, not this one) Philip as the non-executive chairman of its board of directors.

Archaeologists make the best friends. The older you get, the more interested they are in learning about you.

American and JetBlue Take the Next Step With Mileage Earning

American and JetBlue are introducing mileage earning reciprocity on most flights, creating more opportunity for mileage runners to try and game the system.

Effective immediately, it’s possible to earn AAdvantage miles on JetBlue and to earn TrueBlue points for travel on American. The only exception is that AAdvantage miles cannot be earned on JetBlue’s flights across the Pond. Also, neither airline can earn miles on the other’s flights to North Korea, primarily because there are none.

The earning rates on JetBlue for AA loyalists are remarkably similar to what AA offers on its own metal, from 5x miles per dollar spent for general members up to 11x miles per dollar spent for Executive Platinum. For EQMs, AAdvantage members flying on JetBlue earnings will be based on distance flown – Mint will earn 200-300% depending on fare class, economy 100% and basic economy gets the shaft – 0%.

TrueBlue members flying on AA will earn 3x points per dollar spent in any class except Basic Economy, which will earn just 1x points per dollar. Mosaic members will receive a 3x bonus per dollar on top of the points earned by their less important, non-elite brethren.

We’ll have more about a surprising aspect of this announcement tomorrow at crankyflier.com.

Allegiant Adds Six Routes, One Airport

Allegiant Air is expanding service in Florida and Arizona, adding six new routes and one new airport to its route map heading into summer.

The airline is adding its second airport in the Phoenix area, Sky Harbor (PHX), the main airport in the region. Allegiant’s presence at PHX will complement its already existing service at Phoenix/Mesa (AZA), located about 30 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix.

From PHX, Allegiant will begin nonstop service this October to both Provo, UT (PVU) and Stockton, CA (SCK). The former complements the existing route from Mesa to PVU that can be called the LDexpresS due to the large Mormon populations at both ends. And to be clear, this doesn’t mean the airline is leaving AZA, where it is the dominant carrier. In fact, Allegiant will add a new flight from Mesa to Pittsburgh that will begin operating on August 19.

In Florida, Allegiant is adding two new routes out of St. Petersburg (PIE) and one from Fort Lauderdale. From PIE, it will fly to Northwest Arkansas (XNA) beginning July 2 and Provo on October 7. Fort Lauderdale will also receive a flight to Northwest Arkansas, beginning October 8. It should be noted that Breeze just announced Tampa (TPA) to XNA as one of its early routes, so this is obviously pure coincidence… yeah.

United Offers Pilots Cash Incentive to Receive Vaccine

United Airlines and its pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) have come to an agreement to offer incentives to persuade UA’s pilots to receive the COVID vaccine.

Despite United CEO Scott Kirby’s desire to make it mandatory for UA pilots to receive the vaccine not happening, the airline is going to offer up to 13 hours of pay as incentive to do so. Pilots who receive their first dose by June 1 and do not need to take sick leave to do so will receive the full 13 hours pay. The amount of bonus pay begins to decrease the longer it takes the pilot to receive the vaccine, to the point that those who receive it after Thanksgiving will owe the airline money.

United’s senior leadership team was going to offer similar cash incentives to pilots with 90% or better on-time records, but a further examination revealed that the two pilots who would qualify are already vaccinated.

American and Alaska Streamline Upgrades

It’s a two-fer for American today as, in addition to the JetBlue news, it will begin making it easier for Alaska’s top-tier elites to upgrade on AA flights.

Starting this week, top-tier elites on Alaska – MVP Gold 75k — will be automatically added to the upgrade list on American flights. Alaska joined American in Oneworld on March 31, and MVP Gold 75k members have been eligible for upgrades the entire time, but the process has been clunky and not customer-friendly, which is in line with the AA experience.

MVP Gold 75k members will be prioritized behind Platinum Pro Elites on the waitlist in addition to anyone from DFW wearing a 10-gallon hat.

Later this fall, Alaska will have confirmed upgrade certificates for its top elites for any AA flight, including long-haul international. In the meantime, MVP Gold 75k members can enjoy two one-way upgrade certificates that are valid on a space available basis on any AA flight where they can enjoy AA’s warm hospitality while waiting out an inevitable mechanical delay.

Brazil’s ITA Announces First Routes

ITA – the Brazilian one, not the Italian dumpster fire – announced its inaugural routes for when it launches operations on July 2. The airline is going after the top three domestic airlines in Brazil – Azul, GOL, and LATAM Brasil – bracing for a fare war from the get-go. Even Rex in Australia agrees this seems crazy.

On July 2, the airline will connect its hub at São Paulo/GRU to seven destinations: Belo Horizonte (CNF), Brasília (BSB), Curitiba (CWB), Porto Alegre (POA), Porto Seguro (BPS), Rio de Janeiro/ Galeão (GIG), and Salvador (SSA).

The airline currently owns just one plane – an A320, but is acquiring more. It expects to aggressively expand shortly after launching operations, with five more destinations coming online in August, five more in September, and then three more on top of that in October and November. In addition to its GRU hub, ITA will build a second hub at Rio de Janeiro/Galeão this fall.

Unlike most airline launches these days, ITA is not positioning itself as a low-cost carrier. Its A320 has just 162 seats as opposed to 174 for Azul and LATAM. The airline will offer a premium economy product which only LATAM offers amongst its competitors, and it will not charge for the first checked bag or seat selection.

• Aeroflot has taken delivery of its first A320neo.
• Air Astana is launching new flights to Podgorica (TGD) the capital of Montenegro beginning June 9. Flights will operate from Nur-Sultan (NQZ) on Wednesday and Saturdays, and from Almaty (ALA) on Thursdays and Sundays.
• Air Serbia is resuming flights to six destinations: Dubrovnik, Split, Bucharest, Thessaloniki, Prague, and Sofia. The airline also announced an expanded codeshare agreement with Aeroflot which it was very excited to do, according to Russian media reports.
• Alaska has entered into a partnership with Airspace Intelligence to optimize traffic flow with artificial intelligence and machine learning. The computers – they’re coming for us.
• Dana Air and Ibom Air signed a codeshare agreement, the first such agreement between two Nigerian domestic carriers.
• Delta is adding 3x-weekly service to Barcelona from both Atlanta and New York/JFK. The airline already serves Madrid with daily service from JFK. JFK to Barcelona will begin on June 6, one day before Spain reopens for vaccinated travelers. Following a lengthy, summer-long siesta, Atlanta to Barcelona will resume on August 5.
• Emirates flew a flight from Mumbai to Dubai last week with just one passenger on-board. Somehow they still were out of his preferred snack choice when the cart reached his row.
• Green Africa Airways is expected to put tickets on sale next week for its anticipated launch on June 24.
• LATAM Brazil and Azul have ended their codeshare agreement after just nine months. They plan to remain friends and will return all gifts to friends and family in due time.
• SAS is receiving a credit line worth up to $360 million from major shareholders and the Danish and Swedish governments. Ryanair is surely getting the lawyers ready.
• Virgin Australia will add 250 new jobs over the next few months including pilots, baggage handlers, kangaroo spotters, and IT specialists.

I ordered 2000 lbs. of Chinese soup. It was won ton.

United Raises Expectations for Q2

United Airlines raised its fiscal expectations for the remainder of Q2, stating that it has seen an acceleration in ticketing yields for the quarter, close to reaching levels not seen since way back in ye-olde 2019. The airline disclosed the information in an 8-K filing with the SEC, adding that domestic leisure yields are now further ahead of where they were for the same period in 2019.

The airline expects revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to be down just 12% for the quarter, much better than its previous expectation of 20%. This comes with capacity being down 46% from Q2 2019, most of which can be attributed to international flying not having returned to pre-pandemic levels.

United believes its EBITDA will be positive in Q3 for the first time since the pandemic thanks to the bustling domestic market and the airline’s cost-saving program of having Basic Economy passengers clean aircraft between flights.

Hawai’i to Remove Testing Requirement for Vaccinated Travelers by July 4

The State of Hawai’i is expected to allow non-essential travel for vaccinated visitors without the need for pre-travel COVID testing to resume by July 4.

Hawai’i Governor David Ige said that with the country approaching 50% of people being fully vaccinated and CDC guidance that there is little risk of transmission amongst those that are vaccinated, his state is ready to open back up and get its residents in the tourism industry back to work. He admitted with a heavy heart, however, that he did thoroughly enjoy making things as difficult as possible for travelers over the last few months, and he will miss the tortured cries in long lines upon arrival.

The governor stated that his greatest concern right now is not being able to know who is vaccinated and who is not, which is why the state has not yet lifted its mask mandate. That… and where he can find the best poi on Oah’u.

The mandate for masks in the state will remain in place through the middle of June at least, and beyond that date at the state’s airports and on public transportation as long as a federal directive for mask-wearing on public transportation remains in effect.

 Qantas Adds Seven New Routes – All to Real Places

Qantas Airways is adding seven new routes to support the rebounding domestic travel market in Australia while the airline also shifts more widebody aircraft to domestic operations.

The new routes include service from Townsville (TSV) to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Adelaide will see new flights to Cairns and Hobart with Sydney adding one more to Ayers Rock (AYQ) and Perth getting a Gold Coast flight. Cranky Daily has confirmed these are all real places with real airports.

The new additions make 45 new routes for Qantas and its LCC subsidiary Jetstar since the onset of pandemic, each one flooding the market to the chagrin of Rex.

In addition to opening new routes, Qantas will operate its 236-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on nine weekly frequencies between Sydney and Perth. It will also put its A330-200 airplanes on more flights from Sydney and Brisbane to Darwin and Sydney as well as Melbourne to Perth.

ITA Launch Delayed Until September

ITA — the Italian startup airline that is literally Alitalia with a new name — will not begin operating this summer as it had previously planned. Luckily, the airline is already operating, the only difference is that it is still called Alitalia. The Italian government was hoping to begin its new venture by July 1 in order to claim some of the busy summer travel season, but it will miss the boat on the deadline, now aiming for September 1.

The transfer to Alitalia 150.0 has been burdened with repeated delays, which give it something in common with Alitalia’s normal operating procedures. Negotiations over financial aid reached an impasse with the Italian and EU governments unable to come to an agreement. The EU is demanding that the new airline have some semblance of being a new airline, including divesting itself of slots in Milan, while Italy insists that it is a new airline because it says it’s a new airline and it has a new name and everything.

The “new” airline is also negotiating with Lufthansa about joining Star Alliance at the same time it is in discussions with its current Skyteam partners Delta and Air France-KLM. Both groups are adamant that the new airline join the other alliance, going so far as to offer significant cash incentives to avoid having to partner with the money pit that is Alitalia ITA.

Airline That Doesn’t Fly Spins Off Subsidiary Airline That Also Doesn’t Fly

Global Crossing Airlines, a U.S. startup airline that doesn’t actually fly people anywhere as of now, announced it is spinning out the shares of its wholly-owned subsidiary Canada Jetlines Operations Ltd to its shareholders.

Under the agreement, each shareholder of GlobalX will receive one share of Jetlines for every two shares of GlobalX held. After the airline is finished distributing the shares, GlobalX will hold 25% of the new Canadian airline with the remaining three-quarters owned by its shareholders.

Once the transaction is formally completed, both airlines will be operated as separate companies with separate management teams and Boards of Directors. They will maintain separate fleets that do not exist or fly anywhere and will not intermix their cabin crew that also do not exist. Both airlines will, however, work to collaborate on strong mission statements and declarations on future plans.

• Belavia had its operating permit in the UK suspended by British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. It’s not a great time to be a Belarussian airline.
• DHL has agreed to lease four additional 767-300 freighters from Air Transport Services Group.
• Emirates is rumored to be launching 4x-weekly service between Miami and Dubai on July 21.
• Porter Airlines is denying a report that it is making a switch from A220 aircraft to E190-E2, which makes sense because at this rate, the airline won’t be flying any airplanes again.
• Spirit cancelled its plan to relocate its operations center just outside of Nashville to Franklin, TN. The ops center was announced to be moving to Franklin last February, but it got a late start this morning with a mechanical issue and simply wasn’t able to make up the time during the day, forcing the cancellation.
• Sure56 Express of China has surely gone into administration.
• SWISS took delivery of its 30^th and final – for now – A220.
• Virgin Atlantic is extending the validity of vouchers and elite members status for an additional three months.
• Viva expects to open as many as 15 new international routes in the next three years as soon as its network planning team can locate an atlas.

If 4 out of 5 people suffer from diarrhea… does that mean that one enjoys it?

Ryanair Flight Illegally Forced to Land by Belarusian Government

Ryanair Flight 4978 flying from Athens (ATH) to Vilnius, Lithuania (VNO) was illegally intercepted by an armed Belarusian Mig-29 fighter over Belarusian airspace and forced to land in Minsk following a fake bomb alert from the Belarusian military.

When the plane loaded with 121 passengers and six crew landed, it was boarded by Belarussian KGB operatives who arrested Roman Protasevich. Protasevich is the founder of NEXTA, a social media news channel which played a major role in protests against the Belarusian government last summer.

The forcing down of a commercial airliner is a violation of the Chicago Convention and sets a wildly dangerous precedent. Lithuanian president Hitanas Nasuda called the situation unprecedented and abhorrent, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Belarus, while EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the incident utterly unacceptable. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, was believed to have said “meh, seems like a pretty good idea to me.” The plane spent seven hours on the ground in Minsk before resuming its journey to VNO.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said that “five or six” passengers did not continue to Vilnius along with Protasevich, saying he was under the impression they were members of the Belarusian Secret Service and were part of the operation, knowing the plane would be forced to land in Minsk.

FAA Downgrading Mexico Air Safety Rating

The FAA is expected to downgrade Mexico’s Air Safety Rating from Level 1 to Level 2 this week, creating a shift in the dynamics of the U.S-Mexico air market.

The downgrade follows a lengthy review of Mexico’s aviation oversight by the FAA. With the drop, Mexican carriers will be prohibited from adding new flights to the United States, marketing and codeshare agreements between US and Mexican carriers will be hindered, and US airlines would be prohibited from serving Mexican food or tequila as part of their inflight service.

A downgrade from the FAA typically means that the aviation authority of the specific county is deficient in areas such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, inspection procedures, or in-flight entertainment options. One industry insider said the FAA’s concerns were not related to specific flight safety issues, but instead Mexico’s oversight of its air carriers as well as its over-reliance on telenovelas to keep passengers occupied.

Delta, which codeshares with Aeromexico, would need to issue new tickets for passengers booked on Aeromexico flights as part of the downgrade. Volaris, Mexico’s leading LCC, would be forced to scale back its expansion plans to the United States while other Mexican airlines would be pushed to look elsewhere for their future growth until the matter is resolved and Mexico returns to Level 1.

United Offers Free Flight Sweepstakes to Vaccinated Travelers

United Airlines is offering MileagePlus members a chance to win free flights for a year for those who either have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or are just really good at photoshop.

To enter the sweepstakes, MileagePlus members must upload their vaccination record to United’s mobile app or website between today and June 22 to be entered to win a roundtrip flight for two, in any class of service, to anywhere United flies. UA will give out 30 pairs of tickets during June and will then select five grand prize winners on July 1 who will win free travel for a year in any class of service to anywhere United flies. The any class of service caveat is amazing – someone, anyone – needs to choose Basic Economy just for the reaction.

The only negative – some might view this as an anti-vaxxer award – is that the reward for getting vaccinated is having to fly United and likely connect through Newark. But hopefully most see this as a great gesture by United in an effort to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated this summer… as well as a way to further the Bill Gates-led global conspiracy for… ah nevermind, it’s just too ridiculous.

Spirit Earns Legal Victory Over FAA

Spirit Airlines was victorious in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after receiving a ruling that the FAA acted improperly by not reallocating Southwest’s slots at Newark when the airline departed the airport in late 2019. This could potentially leading to more Spirit flights at Newark Airport. Spirit and Newark – a match made in heaven.

Southwest picked up 36 slots at Newark that United was forced to release in 2010 as part of its merger with Continental. When Southwest left Newark in 2019, Spirit sought the abandoned slots but the FAA declined, because the airport was technically no longer slot-controlled. Spirit argued that the FAA and the airport retain the right to return to slot controls at any point and state that if that happens, those with slots will receive preference for service at that time – creating a future value for the slots even if they aren’t needed right now.

While the FAA will likely distribute Southwest’s abandoned slots to Spirit and others, it is not legally required to do so. The government could instead convince a delay reduction meeting and work with all carriers to reduce operations at the airport, which sounds costly, time-consuming, and really, really annoying. So expect that to be the option the government takes.

Miami Begins Daily COVID Testing

Miami International Airport is now offering daily COVID tests onsite at the airport for nearly everyone passing through, including passengers and employees. The tests are also available to the non-flying public who prefer a little jet fuel with their COVID test.

Two locations at the airport, the Central Terminal in Concourse E and the South Terminal in Concourse H, offer both Antigen and PCR tests with results being returned in 15 and 40 minutes, respectively.

Passengers testing negative will be free to proceed to their flight with no issue. Those that test positive will be sent back outside security and forced to try to avoid the illegal cockfights and brawls that regularly occur at the Miami airport… until testing negative or their bird wins.

• Air Canada’s flight attendants won a grievance that ends the airline’s ability to prohibit them from displaying visible tattoos while working. Now, only tattoos of American hockey teams are blocked.
• American hired Cole Brown as its new Chief People Officer. Brown is particularly qualified for the role as she has been a person her entire life.
• Cathay Pacific is considering a closure of its Frankfurt pilot base.
• CityJet received $2.4 million in aid from the Danish government.
• Electra Airways returned its only B737-400 aircraft.
• Etihad has taken delivery of its first A350 and is expected to put it into regular service soon.
• Fly Lili still hopes to launch operations in the Romanian domestic market this year. Reaffirming that, of course, only raises doubts.
• flydubai is adding three weekly flights to Mykonos and Santorini from its Dubai hub that will operate between June 18 and September 29.
• Gulf Air has agreed with both Airbus and Boeing to defer deliveries of aircraft originally due to be delivered in 2020 and 2021.
• Malawi Airlines received a bailout from the Malawian government to resume operations next month.
• Nigeria Air‘s debut has been delayed until Q1 2022.
• Southwest is beginning new daily service between Burbank and Reno on July 4. It will also resume flying between Burbank and Salt Lake City.

Just burned 2,000 calories. That’s the last time I leave brownies in the oven while I nap.

Breeze to Launch Next Week

Breeze Airways is ready to take flight as the carrier announced its route network today along with its plans to begin flying Thursday, May 27.

Breeze will operate 39 nonstop routes to 16 cities from Texas to New England. It will have four focus cities: Charleston, New Orleans, Norfolk, and Tampa, with those four cities also serving as initial crew bases. The inaugural flight on Thursday will operate from Tampa to Charleston, then continuing onto Hartford.

The airline will operate a fleet of 13 aircraft this summer – 10 E190s and three E195s. The first of its 60 A220s will arrive next October, with the airline taking delivery of one aircraft every month for five years.

Now for the stuff that matters: There won’t be Wifi when flights begin next week, but Breeze expects to introduce it on its A220 aircraft when they come into service next year. On-board snack options will include Utz Potato Chips and KIND bars. TSA Precheck will be available for Breeze passengers at launch, ensuring the only time you have to take your shoes off is in-flight to annoy your seat neighbor.

For more on the launch of Breeze, visit today’s post at Crankyflier.com.

United To Lead Opening of Newark’s New Terminal

Newark Airport’s brand-new 33-gate Terminal A isn’t scheduled to open for almost a year, but United Airlines will be the terminal’s lead tenant when it opens in April of 2022.

United was seen as the favorite for the majority of gates due to its large east coast hub at the airport, but JetBlue had recently made a late charge as player for the prime real estate. Prime real estate in Newark – now we’ve seen it all.

United will open the terminal with 10 gates in April of next year, operating with narrowbody aircraft. The airline will expand to 20 gates in April of 2023, leaving 13 gates yet to be assigned. Those 13 will be split between Air Canada, American, Delta, and JetBlue. The Port Authority had previously signaled intent to assign those based on a Festivus-style Feats of Strength competition, assigning a gate to an airline every time a representative pinned someone from another carrier.

American Plans to Restart New Zealand Flights This Year

American Airlines is expected to resume flying to New Zealand in December of this year, and to have three routes to the country operating by the middle of January.

AA plans to operate B787 Dreamliner service to both Auckland and Christchurch from three U.S. gateways. Los Angeles to Auckland is expected to resume December 16 and operate daily. It’ll be followed by Dallas/Fort Worth to Auckland – also a daily service, resuming January 4. Lastly, Los Angeles to Christchurch is expected to operate with 3x-weekly service beginning January 5.

American’s flight to Christchurch will be the only nonstop flight from the United States to New Zealand’s South Island. American is hoping that the time difference between New Zealand and the United States, which allows flights headed east to arrive before they departed will distract passengers from the inevitable operational delays their flight will endure.

United Express Resumes Two Routes

United Express will resume two routes in early June that have been paused since the onset of the pandemic last spring. The airline will once again fly from its Washington/Dulles hub to both Ithaca, NY (ITH) and Manchester, NH (MHT).

The Ithaca flight will resume on June 3 with twice daily service Monday-Friday and a single flight on both Saturday and Sunday. The resumption of IAD flights in Ithaca makes it three destinations available at the airport, joining American Eagle to Charlotte and Delta Connection to Detroit.

Manchester’s flight to Dulles will also resume June 3. It’ll receive two daily flights, increasing to three flights a day in July. United’s last flight to Manchester operated in May of 2020.

NBA League Pass to Stream In-Flight, But You Likely Cannot Watch

Viasat and the NBA are teaming up to provide streaming access to NBA League Pass in the air as part of a multi-year deal between the two. NBA games will be available live and on-demand for passengers to stream on their personal devices at no cost on Viasat-equipped aircraft.

The catch is that the service will not be available on domestic flights in the United States, Canada, or China. The NBA’s current TV deals in those three countries preclude League Pass from being offered to passengers. Of all daily departures that feature Viasat as the WiFi partner, as few as 20% will be able to offer up NBA content.

American and JetBlue will be among the first airlines to participate, with League Pass available for streaming on international flights to destinations other than Canada and China. Flights which are eligible for the streaming service will feature a pre-flight announcement informing passengers and reminding them to direct complaints about rigged games and poor officiating to the league office and not to your flight attendants.

• Aegean Air received approval for a €60 million capital raise.
• Air Astana, a Kazakh airline, is set to re-register all its Aruba-registered aircraft in Ireland. That doesn’t sound shady at all.
• Air Europa’s $580 million in loans from the Spanish government was legal, according to the General Court of the European Union. In its ruling, the court told Ryanair to “suck it.”
• ANA is set to issue 10 billion yen worth of bonds. It’s not as much as it sounds like – 10 billion yen comes out to about $90 million.
• Austrian is adding summer seasonal service to tourist-heavy destinations include: Cagliari, Catania, Funchal Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Kalamata, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, and Tenerife.
• Condor has a new majority owner as English private equity fund Attestor Capital LLP acquired a 51% stake in the airline.
• Delta hired Dan Janki, formally of GE as its new EVP and CFO, adding another twist to the age-old question: “How many Delta employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
• Etihad and Saudia have expanded their codeshare and reciprocal loyalty agreement.
• GlobalX signed a LOI to lease five more A321-200 freighter aircraft.
• Lufthansa is launching seven new long-haul destinations to be operated by Eurowings Discover next summer. Munich will see service to: Cancún, Las Vegas, and Punta Cana. Frankfurt will be connected with: Fort Myers, Panama City (PTY), Salt Lake City, and Kilimanjaro (JRO).
• Smartwings is resuming service between its Prague hub and Tel Aviv on May 26.
• World2Fly is taking over slots at Madrid (MAD) that were abandoned by Iberia.

The easiest time to add insult to injury is when you’re signing someone’s cast.

FAA Warns Envoy Air About Pilot Error

Envoy Air, the largest regional carrier for American Airlines has been issued a formal warning from the FAA that detailed “consistent evidence showing potential lack of airmanship,” which is not something you want to receive from the FAA.

The FAA’s letter described unsafe and poor piloting from multiple Envoy flight crews over the past two years, some of which narrowly avoided catastrophic endings. The government’s concern lies with systematic issues rather than problems stemming from individual crew error. Envoy currently operates 185 American-Eagle branded aircraft on 1,000 daily flights to over 150 destinations in North America.

The airline is working with the FAA and its pilots union to “transparently and collaboratives examine the root cause for each potential issue and take any necessary corrective actions if needed,” which appears to be fancy speak for “oh, crap.” The FAA is working on an “action plan” to resolve the “unsafe operational trends” within the regional carrier. In the meantime, Envoy will work to raise its standards so that the catastrophic incidents aboard its planes remain the standard ones: American Eagle’s poor on-time record, a lack of legroom in economy, and expired soda cans during beverage service.

LaGuardia Debuts New Taxiway

Southwest Flight 617 became the first aircraft to use New York/LaGuardia’s new taxiway as it moseyed towards its 7:39 a.m. departure to Tampa this morning. The plane’s taxi towards the runway along with its water cannon salute was watched by airport executives, invited guests, airport rats and other dignitaries from LGA’s new western skybridge.

The new taxiway is designed to eliminate LGA’s congestion that often led to extremely long taxi times on both departure and arrival as only one plane could enter the taxiway at a time. When the new Terminal B Arrival and Departures Hall opened last summer, the airport moved closer to Grand Central Parkway by 600 feet, which allowed the addition of two sky bridges to connect the east and west concourses. The sky bridges were built high enough so that aircraft could safely pass underneath, giving the airport 50% more taxi space.

Planes can also start the engines immediately at pushback because the extra spacing between aircraft, which negates the need to be tugged out of the alleyway. The new taxiway will significantly cut down on taxiing delays, leaving most delays at LGA to be caused by the tried and true old-fashioned methods, such as NYC ATC congestion and mechanical delays from American.

Spirit Debuts WiFi

Three years after Spirit announced it would be adding WiFi as an on-board feature, the airline debuted its first aircraft with internet connectivity this week. The airline originally hoped to have WiFi active fleet-wide by the summer of 2019, but delays rocked the installation, relating both to issues with the antenna system and the install company balking at Spirit’s $19 fee it was charged for every airplane that was successfully completed.

While Spirit is charging for WiFi (naturally), the prices are quite low as part of its soft rollout and testing phase. Pricing is being reported at $1 for a lower-end plan (which presumably only allows for fee payments on Spirit.com), and $3 for higher speeds and greater bandwidth. Spirit is using Thales Inflyt satellite internet, joining Air Canada as the two North American airlines using the service.

The test is being conducted on Spirit’s A321 aircraft, and the airlines intends to roll the connectivity out to the rest of its fleet upon a successful test period. The testing is expected to last several months with a formal launch later this year.

Alaska Begins Flying to Cincinnati

Nine months after originally planning to fly the route, Alaska Airlines is now operating to Cincinnati, marking the 95^th destination served by the airline from its Seattle hub.

The airline had first expected to fly to the Queen City beginning last May, but the route was put on hold due to the pandemic. At first, the delay was expected to push the flight back to August, but it was then put on hold once again.

The flight gives Cincinnati-based flyers access to Alaska’s network to Alaska, Hawai’i, and up and down the west coast. The B737 aircraft flying the route will do a same day turn, leaving Seattle at 10:10 a.m. and arriving in Cincinnati at 5:35 p.m. The plane will then quickly return to Seattle, with a 6:35 p.m. departure that arrives at 8:25.

PLAY Announces Launch Destinations

PLAY, the Icelandic-based LCC scheduled to begin operations next month announced its launch destinations out of its Reykjavik hub for this summer.

At launch, PLAY will operate from KEF to:

• London/Stansted (STN) 2x-weekly, beginning June 23 (will upgrade to 4x-weekly beginning July 1)
• Tenerife Sur (TFS) 2x-weekly, June 29
• Berlin/Brandenburg (BER) 4x-weekly, beginning July 2
• Alicante (ALC) 2x-weekly, beginning July 13
• Paris/CDG 4x-weekly, beginning July 15
• Barcelona (BCN) 2x-weekly, beginning July 16
• Copenhagen (CGN) 2x-weekly, beginning July 22

PLAY will launch with three A321-200Ns dry-leased from AerCap. The first plane is scheduled for delivery in early June, with the other two to come in July when the airline increases its network.

• AirBlue has been banned from flying to Peshawar (PEW) by the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority because the airline has carried over 50 passengers with fake PCR tests to the city. To be clear, this is different than pilots having fake documentation but upholds the proud tradition of Pakistani airlines faking documents.
• Air Senegal will replace its A319 aircraft with A220s.
• Asiana Airlines former chairman Park Sam-Koo was arrested for embezzlement. Park is accused of illegally taking $116 million in low-interest, no-collateral loans.
• Cargo Air of Bulgaria added its first B737-800 freighter aircraft.
• Delta is adding its DL code as part of a codeshare agreement on domestic and international flights, mostly to the Caribbean, with Silver Airways.
• LATAM ordered six new B767-300 freighter aircraft to increase its freighter fleet to 21.
• Qantas intends to return six A380s to the skies by the end of 2023.
• Sky Alps of Italy has confirmed it will launch operating late this quarter. This quarter ends in 40 days, so they best get stepping.
• South African plans to restart passenger ops no later than the middle of Q3 this year according to interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo.
• Sun Country is selling 6 million shares of common stock from affiliates of Apollo Global Management, the LCC’s majority owner. Apollo’s stake will drop following the sale from 71.6% down to 61.1%.
• Virgin Australia is adding new routes to Cairns (CNS), Darwin (DRW), and Townsville (TSV), all three of which are real places.
• VM Airlines of Russia will receive a $13.6 million settlement from an oil firm that allowed its passengers to smile while on-board the aircraft.

I finally told my suitcases we won’t be going on a summer vacation again this year. Now I’m having to deal with emotional baggage.

Apologies from yesterday: Hopefully you’re not still refreshing your inbox waiting for Tuesday’s Cranky Daily to arrive. A technical glitch prevented the email from being distributed, but it was posted online at CrankyDaily.com. If you’re looking for yesterday’s airlines news and snark, you can catch up by clicking here.

JetBlue Puts London on Sale; Announces Dates

JetBlue Airways first flight to the United Kingdom will operate on August 11, inaugurating daily service from New York/JFK to London/Heathrow. The flight to London will be a redeye, departing JFK at 10:10 p.m. and arriving at 10:10 a.m. the next day. The plane will remain in London all day, potentially visiting a pub to kill time before returning at 6:10 p.m., with a 9:43 p.m. scheduled arrival into JFK.

Several weeks later, JetBlue will begin daily nonstop service from JFK to London/Gatwick on September 29. Flights from Boston to London will begin in 2022. Tickets for flights to both London airports are on sale now.

JetBlue had hoped to begin flying the route earlier than mid-August, but was delayed by various regulatory holdups including proving it could safely operate long over-water flights. The airline first thought it’s perfect record of flying over the Long Island Sound would be enough to satisfy safety regulators but ended up needing further sign-off.

Roundtrip fares will start at $599 in economy and $1,979 in Mint.

European Union to Welcome Vaccinated Travelers – Eventually

The European Union has come to an agreement to accept vaccinated travelers later this summer including Americans – except those who insist on traveling with fanny packs. EU leaders will give formal approval to the plan next week, and not today, because nothing done in Europe is ever done with urgency.

Visitors must have been inoculated from the virus by one of the vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency – that list includes all vaccines currently available in the United States.

The date at which visitors will be welcomed back has not been set, with a re-opening date on hold while the countries determine how they will verify vaccination. Some nations are planning to accept a pinky swear while others will want more verifiable information. Each member nation will retain the right to place restrictions back on travel if infections spike or if visitors seem generally annoying to the point of wanting them to go back home.

U.S.-Canada Border Restrictions Extended Again

The border between the United States and Canada will be closed for another month through June 21. This will mark the 14^th consecutive month the border has been closed to non-essential travel between the two nations.

The border closure was scheduled to expire later this week, so this extension will buy more time as the two governments potentially inch closer to reopening the border. Currently 46% of Canadians have received their first dose of Covid vaccine, but just under 4% have received their second shot. 47% of Americans have received their first show, with over 37% fully vaccinated.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated that rules and guidelines were unlikely to be loosened in Canada until vaccination rates climb over 75%, which if true would signal a long road ahead to reopen the land border between the two countries. In the meantime, essential travel can continue including shipments of maple syrup and Labatt south into the United States and truckloads of Coca-Cola into the north.

Ryanair Wants its Airplanes and it Wants Them Now

Ryanair is “quite upset” at Boeing and does not “necessarily believe” that B737-8-200 deliveries will start by the end of May as the manufacturer promised the airline. The European court system breathed a sigh of relief at the news, hoping this will lead to a pause in lawsuits filed by the airline.

Ryanair CEO, Michael Leary said during a quarterly earnings presentation that mismanagement in Seattle is leading to a risk that Ryanair won’t take delivery of any of the aircraft until after the start of summer. The FAA and EASA approved the aircraft for certification in March and Ryanair was hopeful to take delivery of the new aircraft by the end of last month.

Ryanair is expecting 60 of the aircraft to be delivered by the start of the summer travel season out of its total order of 210. It is one of two airlines with orders of the B737-8-200, with VietJetAir being the other.

Viva Aerobus to Expand Mexico-US Service

Monterrey-based Viva Aerobus is launching four new transborder routes between the United States and Mexico, giving the airline 23 routes between the two countries. Viva Aerobus is the second largest Mexican carrier by capacity on transborder routes, trailing only fellow ULCC Volaris.

Austin will see two new nonstops on the airline, with year-round, twice-weekly service to Monterrey (MTY), and seasonal, twice-weekly service to Mexico City. Both routes will begin on June 19, with AUS-MEX wrapping up on October 25.

Cancun will see two new U.S. destinations on the airline, with twice-weekly service from Houston/Bush beginning July and once-weekly flights to Newark beginning July 4.

• Aer Lingus is shutting down its Shannon (SNN) base, while laying off 150 employees as part of the closure.
• Air Canada and Edmonton International Airport have signed a partnership to reduce carbon emissions by testing emerging green technologies.
• Air France Flight 382 from Paris/CDG to Montreal on Tuesday was the first long-haul flight to operate using Sustainable Aviation Fuel produced in France. The fuel was said to be a dark red with undertones of oak and cinnamon.
• Air Malta is restarting service to four European cities in June: Lisbon, Munich, Prague, and Vienna. It will operate 51 weekly round trips to 15 destinations during the month.
• Alaska is resuming full meal service in first class to and from Hawai’I and on transcontinental flights. A nation rejoices.
• Edelweiss is popping back into the Dominican Republic, resuming once-weekly service from Zurich to Puerto Plata (POP) on July 2.
• Elite Airways is adding service from its Portland, ME (PWM) hub to Florida. Twice-weekly flights to Sarasota and Melbourne will begin on July 1 with a stop in White Plains, NY (HPN).
• ITA, the Brazilian start up, not the wildly mismanaged Italian one, announced a $500 million investment from Qatar. The airline at first thought it was getting $500 million worth of guitars but decided to keep the money once it realized what was up.
• Jazeera Airways had an ordinary 10% increase in capital approved by shareholders during an Extraordinary General Meeting today.
• Nok Air is knocking on the door of financial stability after filing its restructuring plan with a Thai bankruptcy court.
• Singapore will raise about $4.5 billion via mandatory convertible bonds.
• Southwest revealed in an SEC filing that leisure bookings for June are approaching 2019 levels, but due to the much lower average ticket price of leisure travel, revenues will be down 20-25% compared to 2019.
• Wizz Air confirms it will open a new base in Cardiff (CWL) beginning June 17. One A321-200 will be stationed at the airport.

What do call a criminal landing an airplane? Condescending.

Italian Government to Finance ITA

The Italian government continues to throw good money after bad, as it prepares to approve $968 million in funding to jumpstart the Alitalia 2.0 project which it has named ITA to fool everyone into thinking its a new airline.

The government is planning to allocate as much as $3.63 billion to the new boondoggle of an airline as part of an initiative to restore the Italian economy following the pandemic. The money will be paid out whether it ends up remaining as Alitalia or does reinvent itself as ITA.

The first payment of $968 million is designed to show its fiscal worthiness as required by government agencies – the very same government that’s spending the $3.6 billion. To recap, Italian government agencies require enough capital in the bank to demonstrate to the Italian government that the airline is fiscally secure. To meet the requirement, the Italian government is doling out $3 billion to satisfy those agencies of the Italian government.

The airline plans to take $1.9 billion of the cash as startup costs, while the allocating the remaining $1.7 billion for future investments, fleet renewal, a really expensive brunch, and any medical issues stemming from excessive gesticulation.

Air Transat Loses Another Potential Suitor

Air Transat’s quest for a buyer took another hit this week when Canadian media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau declared he was no longer interested in purchasing the airline.

Péladeau was the fallback plan for Air Transat when its agreement fell through with Air Canada earlier this spring. The Air Canada deal was scuttled due to European regulators taking too long to sign off on the deal, giving Air Canada the right to back out of the takeover.

Péladeau beef was with AT’s main shareholder over the valuation of the airline. Letko, Brosseau & Associates, Inc., the leading shareholder believed the airline was worth more than the C$5 Péladeau was proposing. Letko then declined Péladeau’s offer of C$5 per offer plus a year’s worth of free coffee at Tim Horton’s, which was the final straw Péladeau, leading him to walk away from negotiations.

Air Transat will now go back to the drawing board as it looks for a buyer. The airline is currently on several apps, including Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge in its search for the right suitor.

Cargojet Considers Moving South to Avoid Pilot Fatigue Guidelines

Cargojet, a Canadian cargo operator based in Hamilton, ON (YHM) is considering moving its base of operations to the United States after a new Canadian law that restricts the amount of flying pilots can perform at night, in addition to extending rest periods between trips.

The carrier applied for an exception to the new regulations with Transport Canada, which is currently pending. The appeal suffered a blow when Cargojet’s union overwhelmingly voted against the airline receiving the exemption. Revenue for Cargojet was $130 million in Q1, a 30% increase from a year ago and it has hired more than 60 new pilots to keep its operation running at full-capacity due to the new guidelines. The increased labor costs have hurt the airline’s bottom line and led to a very crowded company holiday party.

If the appeal is denied by Transport Canada, the airline is considering moving south of the border to the United States, where pilot fatigue and rest rules are far more lax for cargo pilots, especially when compared to those who operate passenger aircraft. The FAA only requires cargo pilots visit a Starbucks and make any purchase on their way to work in order to be cleared to fly.

Cargojet currently operates to the United States on behalf of Amazon, DHL Express and Purolator Courier, but has no base of operations in this country. To prepare for a possible move, employees have been working on their American accents, learning the differences in rules from the CFL to the NFL, and ditching their summer coats.

KLM Makes Changes to European Schedule

KLM announced changes to its summer schedule within Europe as the airline looks to capitalize on the increase in flying to beach and sun destinations in southern Europe.

The airline intends to fly to 96 destinations this summer, up from 92 in the summer of 2019. It will not fly to Växjö (VXO) in Sweden, suspending service indefinitely. Additionally, two routes in France – Marseille (MRS) and Nantes (NAN) will be operated from Paris/CDG on Air France as a KLM codeshare instead of on KLM metal.

But the airline is adding four new destinations to its route map from Amsterdam:

• Belgrade (BEG) – daily, beginning May 13
• Dubrovnik (DBV) – daily, beginning June 26
• Palma de Mallorca (PMA) – daily, beginning June 26
• Verona (VRN) – daily, beginning June 26

KLM also says it will add flights or larger aircraft on routes as demand fluctuates. The airline is safe in its belief it won’t need to add anything to its routes to the UK, feeling confident that the news of London’s place as a hot summer destination hasn’t reached the Netherlands quite yet.

Vietnam Considers Deregulating Airline Pricing

Similar to where the United States was two generations ago, Vietnam currently regulates the pricing market for domestic flights by capping what carriers are permitted to charge on all flights.

A push from flag carrier Vietnam Airlines to repeal the mandate is gaining steam within the federal government. Currently price ceilings are based on distance, with five “buckets,” ranging in price from $69-$193.

The current proposal would allow airlines the freedom to set their price with no cap on all routes served by three or more airlines. The airlines say this will allow the market to operate according to supply and demand instead of outside government forces. They also say that it will improve service quality, as airlines would be more incentivized to offer better service when asking for a greater price – no doubt that’s true, just look at what meals are on US airlines compared to 50 years ago – it’s gotten so much better.

When the law went into effect, Vietnam Airways was the only scheduled passenger carrier in the country, but today there are seven, including three LCCs, leading to intense competition for the domestic market in the country.

• 21 Air has added its first B767-300 freighter aircraft in a deal with DHL Express.
• Aeroflot took delivery of four A320neo aircraft.
• Air India is being sued by Scottish energy company Cairn Energy to force the airline to pay a $1.2 billion settlement from an earlier arbitration.
• Allegiant entered an underwriting with Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley for the sale of 1.5 million shares of its stock. The deal took especially long to confirm because no executive with Barclays or Morgan Stanley had ever heard of Allegiant, much less stepped foot on one of its planes.
• CargoAir will be the first European Operator of the B737-800SF.
• Eastar Jet has launched an open auction to find a secondary investor after I signed a deal with an unnamed preliminary preferred investor on May 14. Westjet had no comment.
• Emirates is considering swapping its fleet of B777 aircraft for Dreamliners and two planes to be named later.
• Freebird Airlines Europe is letting loose by opening a base in Cologne, Germany (CGN) where it will house a single A320-200 aircraft.
• LATAM Brazil is outsourcing ground agents at most airports in the country as a cost-saving measure via its bankruptcy restructuring.
• Lufthansa’s demand for flights to the USA has increased by 300% says Lufthansa.
• Mokulele Airlines is introducing a 19-seat B-1900D for its weekday roundtrips between Honolulu and both Moloka’I (MKK) and Lanai (LNY) beginning this fall.
• Montenegro Airlines recent windfall of $56 million in state aid was ruled illegal by a Montenegrin court. The airline said it would repay the funds, but they’ve already been spent neon LEDs to trick out the interior of its aircraft.
• Norwegian had its reconstruction plan approved by the High Court of Ireland and the Oslo Byfogdembete. The airline is one approved reconstruction plan away from receiving a free sub sandwich at Oslo-area Subway shops.
• Sun Country announced the beginning of a proposed second public offering of six million shares of its common stock. For more information, ask someone you know who owns a lot of stock.

Why couldn’t the green pepper practice archery? Because it didn’t habanero?

United’s July Inches Towards Pre-Pandemic Levels

The United Airlines July schedule will include more than 400 additional daily flights compared to June as it operates nearly 80% of its pre-pandemic schedule during the month. In total, the July schedule represents a 17% jump over its June offerings.

Most of the additions will be felt at Chicago/O’Hare and Washington/Dulles which will operate more than 480 and 220 daily departures, respectively. United is adjusting its banks in both hubs adding two new ones in Chicago with one late night bank in Washington.

While almost all of the increases are on domestic service, United is increasing some international offerings as well. It will begin its new flight from Newark to Dubrovnik, Croatia (DBV) a week earlier than planned, on July 1. Its seasonal service from Newark to Athens (this one, not this one), will be upgauged to a B777-200ER from the originally scheduled B767-300ER. United will also add a second daily flight from Dulles to Frankfurt in July along with some more Italy flying, and it expects to resume flights from Newark to Barcelona, Lisbon, and Madrid once Spain and Portugal re-open to vaccinated travelers.

United, Delta, and American Begin Quarantine-Free Flights to Italy

American Airlines joined Delta last week while United made plans today as the three U.S.-based airlines that will offer quarantine-free flights to Italy — provided travelers can supply a negative test result at check-in and then pass a rapid test upon arrival in Milan or Rome.

American’s process differs slightly from Delta’s process which requires an additional rapid test taken at the airport just before boarding. Delta can offer this service because its flights are likely to depart on-time, whereas by the time AA’s flights leave, the rapid test taking at check-in or boarding is likely no longer to be valid.

The announcement from each airline comes after Italy announced last week that it is ready to welcome all travelers arriving on a COVID-tested flight from the U.S., Canada, Japan, and UAE. Italy’s policy will be in place through July 30 at which point it will reevaluate based on the level of positive cases in the country and hopefully relax restrictions further.

FAA Hits Unruly Delta Passenger with Record Fine

One former Delta passenger idiot will be $52,500 lighter in his wallet soon after the FAA proposed the five-figure penalty in response to a series of incidents aboard a Delta flight from Honolulu to Seattle last December. The passenger has 30 days to respond.

The passenger idiot attempted to open the flight deck door midflight and then refused to comply with crew member instructions after the attempt. One would think that his attempt to open the flight deck door would indicate his unwillingness to comply with instructions, but full credit to the Delta flight crew for giving it a go.

The unruly idiot then struck a flight attendant in the face before pushing him to the floor, taking over the title as angriest passenger because Delta ran out of Biscoff in airline history. The perpetrator then charged at the flight attendant again while he was being restrained into plastic cuffs. Later in the flight, he managed to break free from the cuffs and struck the flight attendant again.

Reports from the cabin stated that the passenger — in addition to wanting more Biscoff — kept telling the flight attendant that he already had the Delta branded American Express and did not want to hear the sales pitch. The plane was met by law enforcement who took the passenger into custody upon arrival. The civil penalty from the FAA will be in addition to any potential criminal charges. While being hauled away he could be heard asking the gate agents in Seattle how many SkyMiles he would earn when he posted his bail on his Delta-branded Amex.

South African Airways Plans Restart

South African Airways is hoping to resume flying later this summer as the airline emerges from the pandemic and bankruptcy that dominated a rocky 2020 for the airline.

SAA, which is state-owned, entered into administration in December of 2019, a situation that went from bad to worse when the pandemic hit three months later. SAA has not flown commercially since September of 2020 but has operated limited cargo flights in the interim. The airline exited the administration process last month after receiving a $550 million cash infusion from the South African government.

Money that was earmarked for SAA’s subsidiary airlines was held up in further litigation due to the language of the restructuring not specifically earmarking funds for anyone but SAA. That issue has been mostly resolved, allowing SAA to turn it focus on when it will return to the air.

The airline also must negotiate a settlement with its pilots union before it can hope to meet its target of July or August. If airline and union negotiations in the United States are the base for what is expected, then July or August of 2025 might be more realistic.

Philippine Airlines to Shrink

Philippine Airlines is in discussions with its plane lessors about returning aircraft to save money and reduce its fleet size. The conversations come on the heels of the airline planning a Chapter 11 filing in the United States to carry out a restructuring.

The airline is working with Seabury Capital on its potential bankruptcy filing. It expects to continue flying during the bankruptcy, and no operations will be affected beyond the usual fun-filled experience of trying to guess when flights will operate, just as during regular times. PR will use the process to restructure lease contracts that cannot be negotiated ahead of time and reduce debts to provide it with a better chance of post-pandemic survival.

In March, the airline announced it would be cutting an additional 2,300 jobs. With no government support on the horizon, bankruptcy appears to be its only pathway to survival. It would join Avianca, LATAM, and Virgin Atlantic as foreign airlines to file for U.S. bankruptcy protection since the onset of the pandemic.

• Aeroflot won in a Russian court which determined — and had Maury Povich announce — that the airline is NOT responsible for Transaero’s debts.
• Binter Air of Spain is ending service to Cabo Verde with the addition of Bestfly Angola into the market.
• British Airways introduced new sleep pods in its first class lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. The pods permit 20 minutes of napping and then slowly begin vibrating to wake up the traveler. The level of the vibration can be set at “gentle awakening,” “light shake,” and “holy crap my flight leaves in an hour and I’m still in bed at home and haven’t started packing yet.”
• East-West Express, a Ukrainian Airline whose finances are expected to mostly go south, acquired an A319 last week, its first airplane.
• Fly Gangwon of South Korea plans to use its previous capital campaign to add A330s to its fleet.
• JetBlue announced today that Ursula Hurley has been named acting CFO, effective June 11.
• Lübeck Air plans to launch international flights for the first time this fall.
• Neos will begin twice-weekly service between Milan/Malpensa (MXP) and New York/JFK on June 27.
• PLAY Airlines received its operating certificate from Icelandic authorities and officially registered its first aircraft. Game on.
• Smartlynx Malta is adding five A330-300 freighter aircraft to its fleet.
• TUI Fly Nordic is phasing out its widebody fleet of aircraft.
• TUS Airways completed its Cypriot recertification.

My cousin accidentally used laughing gas as deodorant. He smelled funny all day.