Author: Andrew Bashuk

Southwest Adds to Summer Schedule

Southwest Airlines announced several new routes to bulk up its summer schedule as it looks to finalize its plans.

Beginning June 6, Southwest will return to Costa Rica with daily nonstop flights from Houston/Hobby to both Liberia (LIR) and San José (SJO) along with Saturday-only seasonal service from Baltimore to LIR beginning June 12. The airline will also soak up the sun with increased frequencies to Cancun, Los Cabos, and Montego Bay. Pittsburgh to Cancun service starts on Saturdays during the summer, giving it 22 departures to and from Cancun on Saturdays this summer, just in time for hurricane season.

Domestically, Southwest is bulking up flying from several cities primarily in the middle. Denver will see flights to three new cities for the summer: Midland, TX (MAF), Savannah, GA (SAV), and Sarasota (SRQ). St. Louis will see new service to Savannah, Sarasota, and Destin/Fort Walton Beach (VPS); while its neighbor across the state, Kansas City will get new flights to Miami, Sarasota, and Destin/Fort Walton.  The airline is also doubling up on the Windy City, adding Fort Lauderdale and Austin from Chicago/O’Hare while its hub at Midway will resume flying to Boise and Spokane.

London/City ATC Goes Remote

London’s City Airport (LCY) is now the first major international airport to use a fully remote and digital air traffic control tower. All flights in and out of the airport are now being guided by an ATC staff located about 75 miles away at an air traffic control center in Swanwick.

Sixteen HD cameras and sensors were placed around the former ATC building on the airport’s grounds creating a 360-degree view of the airfield and the surrounding skies which is then relayed to the remote ATC location. The live footage is then displayed on 14 screens for the ATC staff along with a live audio feed from the airport and radar information.

The cameras can be tilted and zoomed, while information on each aircraft including call signs, altitude, and speed can be displayed on a single display. The CPUs managing the displays are blocked from downloading Microsoft Flight Simulator to ensure that ATC staff are always looking at actual footage from the airfield and not mistakenly landing planes from the game.

Eurowings Eyes Expansion

Eurowings CEO Jans Bischof is exploring expansion plans for the airline to add new bases beyond its current strongholds in Germany and neighboring countries, because it can’t be considered an official Lufthansa Group airline unless it has big reorganization plans at all times.

Eurowings is looking towards the entire continent, having engaged in talks with airports from the Nordics and Eastern Europe. The airline is satisfied with how it’s defended the German market from LCC competition such as easyJet, Ryanair, and Wizz Air, giving it the confidence in growing its presence across the continent.

The airline currently has three bases outside of Germany, in Salzburg (SZG), Palma de Mallorca (PMI), and Pristina, Kosovo (PRN). Bischof expects the airline to open the new bases before the end of the year, with some coming online in as little as three months. He feels strongly that no expansion will take place outside of Europe, as the airline is not interested in changing its name.

Pakistani Government Approves PIA Restructuring

Pakistan’s Federal Cabinet approved a restructuring plan for Pakistan International Airlines to make the state’s flag carrier profitable by 2023. PIA, of course, is the airline that offered pilot jobs to the highest bidders regardless of whether or not they were qualified – meaning it’ll need to find a new path to profitability if it’s no longer going to be on the take when it comes to hiring pilots.

The government says that the airline’s current workforce of 14,000 gives it an employee-to-aircraft ratio that is triple that of Air France or Singapore Airlines. Roughly 2,000 staff have accepted buyouts with a goal of eliminating another 7,000 jobs. PIA currently has 32 aircraft in its fleet, but the government wants that dropped below 30. 14 of the 32 are owned by the airline with the rest being leased from various lessors.

The airline lost $225 million which was an improvement from a $341 million loss in 2019. The airline’s books were helped by the fact it was shut down for several months due to the fake pilot scandal which allowed it to not fly money-losing routes during the pandemic.

AA AAdds Four Routes, One New Destination

American Airlines announced four new routes that will begin late this summer, two of which will operate to a new city for the airline.

Service from two AA hubs – Charlotte and Dallas Ft. Worth – will begin on August 17 to Columbus, Georgia (CSG). Regional jets will operate both routes, a CRJ-700 from Charlotte and a CRJ-900 from Dallas. Delta had been the lone carrier operating to Columbus with its multiple daily flights to Atlanta since American left the airport in 2013.

Other new service for American will include a daily flight from Charlotte to El Paso, making Charlotte the 5^th AA destination from the west Texas airport. Dallas/Ft. Worth will add a daily nonstop to Syracuse. American will resume the route for the first time since 2008, and it’ll be American Eagle’s longest flight from DFW until a regional partner finally adds that Dallas to Singapore CRJ that everyone has been hoping for.

• Air Madagascar has ended its B737-800 operations. Bet you didn’t know the airline had even started them.
• ASKY Airlines is still hoping for ACASH infusion from the Togolese government or the World Bank or a sick uncle in Nigeria to ensure its ability to remain operational.
• Eastar Jet has postponed its plan to open bids for stakes in the airline. Westjet patiently awaits its chance to take down its rival.
• Etihad sold its 40% stake in Air Seychelles back to the Seychelles government for just $1 in exchange for the government writing off $60 million in debt and promising never to mention the word Alitalia again.
• Finnair flew to Pittsburgh for the first time, operating a cargo flight from Helsinki. The airline will continue to fly the route through the end of May.
• Interjet shareholders have approved the airline’s bankruptcy plan.
• JAL is going to acquire Spring Airlines Japan. It expects to make a run for Summer Airlines Japan in a couple months.
• Oman Air and Egyptair have signed a codeshare agreement on each other’s flights between Muscat and Cairo.
• Virgin Australia has opened a pop-up lounge in Melbourne to alleviate overcrowding in its primary club.
• Volotea announced new routes from three of its Italian bases: Genoa (GOA), Lamezia Terme (SUF), and Milan/Linate (LIN).

I went to the store to buy some candleholders, but they didn’t have any, so I bought a cake.

United Adds 6 Seats Back to E175 Fleet

AW Daily is reporting that United Airlines is reinstalling six seats to its E175 aircraft, returning them to their pre-pandemic seating capacity of 76.

United removed the six seats from all 190 of its E175s to skirt around the limit of 76-seat aircraft its United Express affiliates were permitted to fly through its labor agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association, UA’s pilot union. The permitted numbers declined as United’s mainline capacity dropped during the pandemic, so removing seats was the best short-term solution. Thanks to rebounding capacity, United can now reverse the process.

Work on the planes has begun and will be done in June. United will continue to fly all 190 of the airplanes, rotating them in and out for maintenance. In the meantime, some passengers on full flights will still draw the short stick and will stand in the spot on the plane where the seat would have been.

JetBlue’s Takes Delivery of First Plane Bound for London

JetBlue received its first A321LR with the new Airspace interior, the aircraft type it plans to use to launch its new transatlantic operation later this summer.

JetBlue is the first Airbus customer to put the new interior in a single-aisle aircraft. The plane features just 138 seats – 114 in the back and 24 minty-fresh seats up front. Economy seats will feature 18.4 inches of width and 32 inches worth of pitch, with the “Even More Space” seats in the front of economy coming with 37 inches of pitch.

JetBlue has 13 of the new A321neos, along with 57 other Airbus aircraft with the new interior on order. While we don’t believe these planes will feature the subway tile restrooms that its new A220s will, we understand JetBlue has plans to spray-paint graffiti over the restrooms to give it the NYC feel it wants for its passengers.

Kansas City Sees Increased Spirit

Spirit announced four new destinations from Kansas City today, bumping the number of cities served by the airline from MCI from five to nine. The cities are:

• Fort Lauderdale – daily, beginning June 10
• Fort Myers – 3x-weekly, beginning June 10
• Pensacola – 3x-weekly, beginning June 10
• Tampa – 3x-weekly, beginning June 9

The flights to Fort Lauderdale are timed to offer connections through Spirit’s FLL hub – even though it won’t call it a hub – to the Caribbean and Latin America. Though the flights are timed for optimal connections, that assumes Spirit flights will be on-time which is a big bet.

All four cities agreed to pay Spirit’s route expansion fee in exchange for new service. These four new destinations in Florida increase Spirit’s leisure and outdoor focused schedule for the summer as its pandemic recovery plan. The airline is also adding frequencies to three other leisure destination from Kansas City, upgrading Las Vegas and Orlando to twice-daily, and Myrtle Beach to 3x-weekly.

Americans Could be Welcomed Back to UK Soon

Heathrow Airport CEO John Holland-Kaye said Thursday that he expects the United States to be added to the UK’s “green list,” denoting who is permitted to travel to the UK without any required quarantine. Holland-Kaye believes PM Boris Johnson’s government could make the announcement as soon as next week, with travel reopening as soon as May 17.

The other countries likely to land on the UK’s green list include Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Iceland, and some Caribbean islands. The UK won’t announce which Caribbean islands are on the list, forcing passengers to travel and take their chance that they aren’t turned away at border control.

Despite the uptick in domestic U.S. passenger levels, Heathrow is still operating at just 9% of pre-pandemic levels with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic operating reduced international schedules. The airport saw 20% of its pre-pandemic travel come from travel to the United States and would welcome a reopening of the travel corridor between the two countries, as would pretty much everyone else except for the people living right under the flight path.

Lufthansa Expects 90% of Business Travel to Return by 2025

Lufthansa Group CFO Remco Steenbergen said that the four legacy airlines that compose Lufthansa Group expect business travel to return to 90% of pre-pandemic levels by 2025. He made the statement on an earnings call discussing Lufthansa’s Q1 financial report in which the group posted a €947 million loss.

Lufthansa is still working toward becoming smaller and more efficient (aren’t we all). It retired many of its long-haul aircraft with large premium cabins during the pandemic, and currently has 115 fewer planes than it did a year ago. The airline believes it can operate 90% of its 2019 capacity with 80% of the fleet size through more efficient planning. If that doesn’t work, it’ll just throw a bunch more seats on its airplanes.

Lufthansa Group reduced its operating expenses by 51% in Q1 2021 down to €4 billion, compared to €8.2 billion in Q1 2020. The group’s airlines combined for 111,262 employees, a 19% drop from a year ago.

Cargo posted a record quarter with €802 million in revenue, a YoY increase of 45%. The group ended the quarter with €10.6 billion of liquidity. €5.4 billion of that figure is untapped loans and other funds offered but not yet accepted from the German, Swiss, and Austrian governments. It also has several hundred million euro tied up in planning and sponsorship of future Wheneverfests to take place all over Germany.

• Air Transat reached an agreement with the Canadian government to borrow up to C$700 million in any combination of cash and Tim Horton’s gift cards.
• Bamboo Airways is offering a status match promotion to frequent fliers from basically any airline in the world for its Bamboo Club program. Even Alitalia. Actual bamboo is not included.
• Cargolux closed out its FY 2020 books, posting a $796 million profit for the year.
• Frontier recently took delivery of three new A320neo aircraft. The three planes have been outfitted on their tails with Hudson The Bog Turtle, Odell the Lynx, and Crystal the Florida Manatee, respectively.
• GOL has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050. Cranky Daily will provide annual updates on their progress.
• Iberia Maintenance has appointed Paul Horstink as its new Commercial and Business Development Director just in-time for this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
• Juneyao Airlines took delivery of an A321 neo aircraft. It’s reported the aircraft came with seats, restrooms, seat belts, and everything.
• Mas Air signed an agreement with Altavair to dry-lease two más A330-200 freighter aircraft.
• Pegasus is launching new service to Batumi, Georgia (BUS), the second-largest city in Georgia. (this one, not this one.)
• Ryanair is challenging airBaltic by opening a new base at its Riga hub, with a plan of 95 flights by its Buzz subsidiary including 16 new routes. Also expect the airline to sue airBaltic at some point over something.
• Vistara applied to the DOT for a foreign air carrier permit with hopes of being able to travel to the United States this September.
• Viva Aerobus announced the closing of a $150 million funding round that will hopefully be enough to upgrade the airline to become Viva Aeroplane.

I asked a friend of mine who used to be a gymnast to help me learn yoga. He asked if I was flexible and I told him yes, but I can’t meet up on Thursdays.

Avelo Launches Its Inaugural Flight

The future is today for the first U.S. startup airline in 15 years as Avelo Airlines operated its first revenue flight this morning from Burbank (BUR) to Santa Rosa (STS).

The airline hosted a pre-departure ceremony which included a ribbon cutting in the gate area by CEO Andrew Levy who was promptly taken into custody for sneaking the giant scissors past the TSA checkpoint.

Avelo Flight 101 pushed back a couple minutes before its scheduled 10:30 a.m PT departure this morning and completed its journey to Sonoma County in a brisk 59 minutes.  The inaugural flight was operated by one of the airline’s three B737-800 which feature 189 seats – 129 in regular economy, 60 with extra legroom, and presumably a couple in the cockpit for the pilots.

For more on Avelo’s launch, visit tomorrow’s post on Crankyflier.com for an Across the Aisle Interview with Avelo CEO Andrew Levy from a TSA Detention Center near Burbank.

Hawaiian’s First Quarter Earnings Report

Hawaiian Airlines reported its Q1 earnings, headlined by a $61 million loss for the airline on gross revenues of $182 million. The revenue figure is 72% less than Q1 2019, with Hawaiian operating 49% lower capacity.

The airline recently repaid $235 million of debt and expects to receive just over $200 million of government PSP funding in Q2. This leads Hawaiian to continue toward breaking even, expecting a loss between $20 and $70 million in Q3.

Hawaiian noted in its earnings report that it maintained its #1 national ranking for on-time performance for the 17^th consecutive year in 2020. But what it doesn’t tell you is that it wins because its intra-Hawaiian flights operate exclusively on island time, so they are always on-time, no matter when they fly.

The airline ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, leis, POG juice, and short-term investments. That’s a $1 billion improvement from the end of 2020, most of which came from successful mining of its own Hawaiian-based cryptocurrency: Mahaloin.

Alitalia is Out of Money…Again

Alitalia – or ITA – whatever the airline is calling itself today, is out of money and cannot make payroll for April without emergency aid from the Italian government or someone discovering a big, unclaimed bag of cash left at baggage claim by a passenger.

We all know that Alitalia has been a mess for decades, and the Italian government has bailed it out while on life support over and over again. This time, the government decided all it needed to fix everything was a new name due to EU rules. Its rock-solid plan was to sell its assets to itself and relaunch with nothing else changing except the name.

The July 1 launch of ITA is in jeopardy because Alitalia isn’t going to make it to July 1. The Italian government was supposed to send $60 million to the airline on Monday to make payroll, but the government had its Venmo account frozen. In the meantime, Alitalia will continue to operate for now, accumulating more debt and digging a deeper hole for itself.

Mango’s Problems Continue to Circle

South African LCC Mango Airlines announced earlier this week that it will suspend operations on May 1 because it’s out of money. Things then went from bad to really bad today when it was forced to shut down for the day because it was denied permission to land its aircraft. See, it hasn’t paid landing fees for a really long time, and airports don’t tend to like that.

Landing the aircraft is perhaps the most crucial part of a successful flight, (that and speedy wifi) and Mango came to the conclusion that it couldn’t continue to operate in good faith to its customers if it’s unable to land its planes.

Later in the day, the airline was able to scrounge together enough change to make a partial payment to Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) which lifted the suspension, effective Thursday.

The South African government wants to send approximately $200 million to the airline to help with payroll and other operating costs, but the payments are being held up due to a technicality. When Mango’s parent South African Airways went into administration, its rescue plan did not specifically call for government funds for its subsidiaries. Until the lawyers, who are running up enough billable hours to buy all the mangos in the world sort it out, the cash flow to the airline will continue to run dry.

Cathay Pacific Offers Voluntary Buyouts

Cathay Pacific is offering voluntary buyouts for Hong Kong-based crew as the airline needs to keep cutting costs to survive. The request for voluntary buyouts extended to all Hong Kong-based pilots, flight attendants, airport staff, and catering staff.

The airline lost $2.8 billion in 2020 despite cutting 5,900 jobs during the year, ending up with just 20,000 employees. Cathay Pacific announced last week its plans to eliminate its pilot base in Vancouver, with its bases in the United States and Europe likely on the chopping block as well since last year’s cuts did not get the airline close to break even.

Cathay Pacific received HK$39 million in bailout cash last year, but it barely put a dent in the airline’s losses. In asking employees to walk away, it’s offering up to six months salary in a lump sum plus extended travel and medical benefits. Those who choose to participate have until May 31 to accept the offer.

• airBaltic announced three new destinations from its Riga base including Valencia, Spain (VLC), Pisa, Italy (PSA), and Kos, Greece (KGS).
• Austrian retired its second Boeing 767, sending the plane to the big airplane hangar in the sky Michigan.
• Avianca named Adrian Neuhauser as its new president and CEO. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see why.
• Delta is ready to begin hiring pilots again, starting with 75 pilots who have conditional job offers from last year. The new hires are expected to work for a combo cash/Biscoff payment structure until the airline returns to profitability.
• Iraqi Airlines has been targeted by Venezuela’s Conviasa about a potential partnership and codeshare agreement. Suddenly that AA/JetBlue alliance doesn’t look so crazy.
• LOT will begin flying to Dubai with 3x-weekly flights from Warsaw beginning September 19.
• Ryanair says it would resume domestic flights within the UK if the country will cut taxes it charges on short-haul flights. Either way, Ryanair will likely be suing the UK over something at some point.
• SAS named Anko Van der Werff as its new president and CEO, hiring the Netherlands-born executive from the same position at Avianca. He will begin his new role next month, needing time to go coat shopping prior to his move from Ecuador to Sweden.
• Silk Way West is ordering five B777 freighter aircraft.
• Spirit announced the offering of convertible senior notes due in 2026. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank all paid a $12.99 fee for the right to act as underwriters.

I was going to do a joke today about basements. But it was beneath me.

Sun Country Adds Nine Destinations, 18 Routes

Sun Country Airlines announced 18 new routes with service to nine new airports as it tries to open up its winter coat beyond Minneapolis/St Paul to include people freezing in other cities who desperately want to escape this coming winter.

The ULCC will introduce six new nonstop destinations from its hub in Minneapolis/St. Paul and begin seasonal nonstop flights from neighbor airports in Duluth (DLH) and Rochester (RST). New service from Minneapolis includes:

• Phoenix/Mesa (AZA) — 4x weekly beginning November 24
• Any other airport it can find that’s remotely near Phoenix
• Bozeman (BZN) — 2x-weekly beginning December 16
• St Petersburg/Clearwater (PIE) – 4x-weekly beginning November 25
• Punta Gorda, FL (PGD) – 2x-weekly beginning December 10
• Grand Cayman (GCM) – once-weekly beginning December 18
• Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (PLS) –  once-weekly beginning December 18

Other new additions for Sun Country include Fort Myers (RSW) and Phoenix (PHX) with service to Green Bay (GRB), Duluth, MN, and Rochester, MN; Madison, WI (MSN) to Phoenix, and five new destinations from Milwaukee: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Cancun, Las Vegas, Ft. Myers, and Phoenix.

JetBlue Posts Q1 Financials

JetBlue’s first quarter financials are out and the airline posted a $347 million loss on revenues of $733 million. Its gross revenue figure is down 54% from Q1 last year, while its $1.03 billion in expenses are a 47% drop.

Not everything is looking blue for JetBlue as its adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was -$458 million, better than the -$540 million that had been projected. The airline operated 41% less capacity than in Q1 2019, with operating expenses down 43% from two years ago, beating the airlines expectation of a 25% savings. JetBlue repaid $94 million in debt and lease obligations in the quarter and raised $750 million with a convertible debt offering transaction.

The airline ends the quarter with $3.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, most which is tied up in 500-mile upgrade coupons from AA, as JetBlue elected to take that as payment for the Northeast Alliance slot swap instead of cash. JetBlue also received a $100 AA credit as part of the alliance that expires on Thursday. If it does sell that credit, it plans to list the sale on its Q2 financial report, to be released in July.

Real ID Deadline Really Pushed Back

The Department of Homeland Security will delay the requirement for air travelers to have a Real ID in order to fly for at least nineteen months, avoiding the crunch at the already-extended upcoming October 1 deadline.

The previous deadline was October 1 of 2020, which DHS delayed one year due to the pandemic. This new delay will hopefully allow more Americans to comply with the mandate with only 43% holding proper IDs right now. Then again, if the date keeps getting pushed back, nobody will ever believe it’ll stick and they’ll be less likely to bother getting the new ID.

The new deadline is May 3, 2023, which should allow anyone who wants a Real ID time to receive one. Based on the current wait times at some DMV locations around the country the federal government does advise Americans to get to the DMV and in line by the end of this week to ensure they have enough time to get to the counter prior to the May 2023 deadline.

SFO Closes Runway for Maintenance

Travel has been at all-time lows since the pandemic, but with demand finally picking up ahead of a busy summer travel season, plus the potential reopening of Europe to American travelers, San Francisco International Airport has decided that now is the time to take a runway offline for maintenance.

The work was originally scheduled to be done next year, and it could have been done then or any time in the past 13 months while air travel demand was the lowest its been in generations. Instead the airport thinks the next four months are prime time to tackle what it calls “routine maintenance.”

The airport expects day-to-day impact only to affect arriving and departing flights, so that’s a relief. It also says to expect maximum impact between 5-8 p.m. which, luckily for the traveling public, isn’t a time a lot of flights arrive or depart.

When work is complete, the airport’s next project is to hire several industrial fog machines to test how they affect visibility at the airport in early mornings. Airport officials say they plan to install the machines at regular intervals throughout the airport grounds and will really “soup it up” on days there is little to no fog to ensure all passengers get a true SFO experience.

China Southern Receives 1000^th Dreamliner says China Southern

Boeing recently delivered its 1000^th 787 Dreamliner but declined to name the customer that received the lucky airplane. This didn’t stop China Southern from announcing on Twitter that the Dreamliner it took delivery of last week was number 1,000.

The plane, which actually belongs to Air Lease Corporation and is being leased to the airline, flew from Charleston, SC to China Southern’s base at Guangzhou (CAN).

Singapore was originally slated to receive the 1,000^th Dreamliner last year, but those plans were scuttled by the pandemic. The B787-10 with a registration of 9V-SCP received a “1000^th 787 Dreamliner” sticker on its fuselage, but it turned out to be premature, as the aircraft hasn’t been delivered to the airline yet. Singapore now plans to sell the sticker at auction along with 2021 MLB All Star Game Atlanta merchandise to make up for pandemic losses.

China Southern took delivery of its newest Dreamliner one day after JAL took delivery of what would be number 999. After asking the airline for a comment, a spokesman for China Southern said the airline takes plane deliveries seriously, which is why it also still operates the 100^th L-1011, 200^th B707, 300th Ilyushin Il-62, and 400th Yakovlev Yak-40.

• Air Cairo took delivery of its first A320neo aircraft.
• Air Tanzania is more than $60 million in debt, but new Tanzanian president Samia Suluhu Hassan has pledged to rescue the airline with a cash infusion and debt relief.
• Myanmar National Airlines plans to resume E190 operations.
• Rubystar has resumed B747 freighter operations, returning to daily operations after previously only flying on Tuesdays.
• Ryanair found time in-between lawsuits to release its Summer 2021 schedule from the UK. According to its announcement, the airline will operate 160 routes to the world’s most popular destinations and several more, we presume, to the world’s least popular destinations.
• SpiceJet has determined the thyme is now to acquire up to five additional B737 freighters.
• VietJet Air expects to add A330s to its fleet this fall.

My internet provider cut me off because I used too much data when I downloaded all of Wikipedia. Luckily I can explain everything.

EU Expects to Open to Vaccinated Americans This Summer

Fully vaccinated Americans are expected to be welcomed to the European Union later this summer according to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. The bloc hopes to welcome those who have been inoculated by EU-approved vaccines, a list that includes all three being administered in the United States.

This is great news for airlines which have been desperately trying to find good uses for widebody aircraft beyond using them as shade structures for airport employees stuck in the summer heat. United, for example, says that after the news broke on Sunday, April 25, it saw a 19% spike in flight searches on united.com.

The catch is that no timeline has been established for a program to be in place. Additionally, the EU has not given any hints of what entry restrictions will remain and how travelers will be required to show proof of vaccination. While some on the U.S. side have proposed pinky swears as a verification method, the European Commission is not willing to commit at this time.

Blade To Resume NYC Service

After a one-year hiatus, Blade is back providing helicopter service to New York/JFK, with service to the other two major airports in the NYC area returning later this fall. Service to JFK will commence on June 1, operating from the helipad at Blade Lounge West across from Hudson Yards.

The flight to JFK takes about five minutes and includes ground transportation from JFK’s helipad to the airport’s commercial terminals. The five minute helicopter flight includes a pilot with questionable body odor, sudden stops and starts, and an expectation of an exorbitant tip as Blade looks to simulate the taxi to JFK experience during the brief flight.

An individual flight goes for $195 per seat, just slightly more than the price of tolls from Manhattan to any of the three airports. The company also offers memberships that discount the price of one-way bookings and come with other perks such as a build-your-own-helipad starter kit.

Breeze Increases A220 Order

Breeze Airways boosted its order of A220 aircraft by another 20, taking its overall commitments for the aircraft to 80. This would make Breeze the second largest operator of the A220-300 in the world, especially impressive considering the airline has not yet begun to fly.

Airbus announced an order for 20 A220-300 aircraft last month to an undisclosed buyer, which now appears to be Breeze. The airline has been planning its launch since June of 2018, and is hoping to announce its launch very soon initially user Embraer 190/195 aircraft with the A220 joining by year-end.

Neeleman said last week that 80% of the routes flown by Breeze will face no nonstop competition, taking the “why don’t they make the whole plane out of the black box” trope to reality. Apparently it’s not occurred to Neeleman that there’s a reason no one flies these point-to-point routes where no one wants to go, but he thinks he can make a go of it. For now, we’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the man who has had four successful airline startups in his life: Morris Air, JetBlue, WestJet, and Azul.

Hong Kong Considers Second Bubble 

With a travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore set to begin on May 26, the Hong Kong government expects to use its existing framework to blow open a bubble with both Australia and New Zealand.

Hong Kong Commerce Secretary Edward Yau said that the bubble with Singapore “signified that gradual resumption of cross-border travel is achievable,” while indicating that discussions with both the Australian and New Zealand governments would take place.

Under the current arrangement between Hong Kong and Singapore, the bubble will burst if the seven day average of unlinked local positive tests exceeded five in either location. There will be one daily flight each day into each city as a part of the bubble, operated by either Cathay Pacific or Singapore, with a maximum of 200 passengers on the flight. No transit passengers will be permitted.

Passengers must test negative both before departure and arrival, with tests taken at the traveler’s expense. Passengers must also be able to make a Singapore Sling in under three minutes and receive approval from a taste tester before being able to enter quarantine-free.

Qantas and Rex Unable to Play Nicely

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce had some choice words for Qantas’s regional competitor Rex Airlines, continuing a war between the two airlines which has succeeded only in making both look petty and whiny.

Rex has used the pandemic as an opportunity to grow from a small, regional carrier to a full-service challenger to long-time Australian heavyweight champion Qantas. In an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review, Joyce laid out many of the reasons he doesn’t care for how Rex has gone about its business.

Joyce starting by implying hat Rex is unsafe, saying: “Rex likes to say that they are the most profitable airline in Australia, adjusted for size. That’s a dubious distinction when you have failed to invest in your fleet and propellers are literally falling off.” Of course Rex’s propellers don’t really fall off its aircraft, or if they do, it’s done a great job of keeping it on the down low.

Joyce continued on, saying Rex earned the dubious honor of presiding over the worst launch of a new jet airline in Australian history. He said “we’ve all seen this movie before,” predicting that Rex is soon headed for bankruptcy like many of its Australian predecessors including Ansett Australia, East-West Airlines, and Mel Gibson.

He called the airline out for repeatedly using its “or else” strategy in threatening to stop flying to small towns where Qantas offered up competition. But then things got serious when Joyce said the kangaroo on Qantas’s aircraft would be a safer pilot then anyone Rex has hired and that Rex and its staff don’t even have real Australian accents.

• AirBridgeCargo plans to begin scheduled cargo ops to five new destinations with government approval.
• American plans to charge passengers who have to check their bag because it doesn’t fit in the bag sizer. It also says it will offer reliable on-time service on a schedule that’s convenient. Don’t hold your breath on either.
• Azerbaijan Airlines is resuming flights between its Baku hub and London/Gatwick on May 15.
• British Airways CEO Sean Doyle took a piece out of Ryanair’s playbook warning the British government that more jobs cuts could be coming if travel restrictions are not eased for the summer.
• China Airlines plans to lease out two of its B747 freighter aircraft. To maximize its profit, it wants to do so in the next couple weeks so as not to compete with Memorial Day sales events.
• Mahan Air is putting its B747-300 back into passenger service, making it the only airline in the world to still operate the aircraft.
• Trade Air placed its final Fokker 100 aircraft up for sale. All offers will be considered. Seriously, all offers.

I was offered a new job today doing home installations for a mirror company. The pay isn’t great, but it’s something I’ve always seen myself doing one day.

Delta Grows its Airbus Fleet

Delta Air Lines placed an order for 25 additional A321neo aircraft with an option for 25 this week, bringing its total number of firm orders for the airplane to 125.

The airline expects to take delivery of its first A321neo in the first half of 2022 – Airbus can have it ready later this year, but Delta padded the arrival time by more than half a year to guarantee it wouldn’t tarnish its on-time record.

The single-aisle jet will be powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100G turbofan engines that are 12% more fuel efficient than the current A321 aircraft and come with P&W’s guarantee that the engines probably won’t fall apart and drop on people’s houses while in-flight.

The aircraft will be outfitted with the latest in in-seat technology including power ports at every seat that will work with your seatmates’ devices but never yours, wifi that will get that one email sent by the time the plane lands, spacious overhead bins that will be full by the time you board, and in-flight entertainment loaded with sitcoms you’ve already seen, movies you don’t like, and a headphone jack that only works in one ear.

REAL ID Not Yet Getting Real

The government’s deadline to require REAL ID to fly is approaching quickly with October 1 about five months away, but with just 43% of American in compliance with the new guidelines, the airline industry is asking for an extension. This would be yet another extension, after the last October 1, 2020 deadline was pushed back a year due to the pandemic.

The Department of Homeland Security told ABC News the agency is “assessing the necessity to move the enforcement date.” The U.S. Travel Association says the combination of Americans that don’t know about the upcoming changes and those who haven’t been able to get a new ID due to pandemic shutdowns at DMVs around the country has created a significant impediment to get Americans compliant with the REAL ID requirements.

Meanwhile, the opposite of REAL ID, the national high school FAKE ID program continues to thrive, with teenagers across the country acquiring the fake documents at a much higher rate than 43%.

We’re Number Two! Atlanta Dethroned as World’s Busiest Airport

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was the second busiest airport in the world in 2020, falling just short of Guangzhou, China (CAN) which took the crown for the pandemic-plagued year.

Seven of the top ten airports by passenger traffic were in China for the year with the outliers being Atlanta joined by Dallas/Ft Worth (4^th) and Denver (7^th) in the top ten. Atlanta had held the title of world’s busiest airport since 1998 but suffered a 61.2% drop in traffic in 2020 to end the year with 42.9 million passengers. Guangzhou suffered a 40.4% drop from 2019 down to 43.7 million to just clip Atlanta for the title.

While you might think the pandemic was responsible for this fall from grace, don’t forget Delta’s two cancelpaloozas late last year when it ran out of enough pilots to operate its scheduled flights. That didn’t help.

Atlanta did win a consolation prize as the airport did surpass Chicago/O’Hare to take the prize for most aircraft movements in the year with just over 548,000.

Mango Loses its Flavor

South African LCC Mango Airlines will cease operating indefinitely, effective May 1 as the airline has run out of cash to fly its airplanes and pay its staff. But other than that, everything is going fine. When the airline shuts down next week, it has also asked the government to place it into bankruptcy protection through July.

The South African Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has been in discussion with the airline and its parent SAA about repositioning the airline to keep it flying. The government wants to send $188 million of the $733 million it has set aside for SAA’s rescue to Mango, but SAA did not include Mango in its original business rescue plan, making the common grocery mistake of heading straight for the deserts section and forgetting all about produce.

Mango expected to receive government funding by January of this year after it was approved last fall, but it is still waiting on the cash. It operated during the first half of the year under the impression the check was in the mail, but so far nothing has materialized. Mango officials reached out to fellow fruity LCC Peach Airlines in Japan about a possible cash infusion or merger, but Peach officials were just confused and told Mango it couldn’t even keep its reservation system up and a merger with a spoiled fruit wasn’t something to consider.

Cathay Pacific Closing Bases

Cathay Pacific is closing its Canadian pilot base, and is putting its bases in Australia and New Zealand on the chopping block. The airline also plans to review its staffing situations in both Europe and the United States later this summer.

Furloughed pilots in Canada have been receiving two-thirds of their salary since the beginning of the pandemic, with American and European pilots receiving one-half. All overseas passenger fleet pilots have been on furlough by the airline since last May, with a handful of cargo pilots still working.

Unfortunately for the airline and its pilots, transferring overseas pilots to Hong Kong is an unlikely solution. There is a large pool of unemployed pilots in Hong Kong due to the shutdown of Cathay Dragon last year, causing the Hong Kong government to likely block any long-term work visas for foreign pilots.

Cathay Pacific is looking at all options to cut costs after it lost $2.8 billion in 2020.

• Air Montenegro received a $3.6 million infusion from the Montenegrin government.
• Asiana is in negotiations to convert some its passenger aircraft into freighters. As always, we encourage the airline to wait until all passengers are off their aircraft to begin the conversion.
• Delta is adding a third daily flight to Athens (ATH) this summer, with a nonstop from Atlanta beginning July 2. This flight will compliment the airline’s two daily nonstops from New York/JFK.
• Emirates is returning A380 service to the United States, with one daily flight on the aircraft to New York/JFK beginning June 1. The A380 will also return on Emirates’s daily flight to both Los Angeles and Washington/Dulles.
• Eurowings Discover is taking over Edelweiss’s fleet of A330 aircraft.
• Gol saw Bank of America divest itself of shares of the airline, cutting its stake from 12.6% down to 3.7%.
• IrAero will go ahead and add its first A319 this summer.
• Qantas is returning seat back entertainment to most of its planes after going dark last spring to save money.

I’m doing a one-person theatrical performance on vocabulary and grammar this weekend. Really, it’s just a play on words.

Cranky Earnings Day: American

American Airlines posted its Q1 earnings today, with the airline reporting a loss of $1.3 billion on revenue of $4 billion.

American reduced its cash burn to $27 million per day including $9 million in debt principal and severance payments. By March, AA was able to reduce its cash burn to just $4 million a day, providing optimism that a breakeven quarter is not far away.

American issued $6.5 billion worth of bonds and entered into a new $3.5 billion loan during the quarter, using its AAdvantage program as collateral. The airline was careful to point out that it used the value of AAdvantage points as collateral, not the AAdvantage members itself. It forgot to make that clarification at the beginning of the deals and dozens of AAdvantage members from the Dallas area were told to report to Wall St by the end of the quarter before the issue was worked out.

AA also repaid $2.8 billion worth of loans while obtaining the right to access an additional $3.3 billion in cash through the CARES Act if needed. American ended the quarter with $17.3 billion in liquidity and it expects to end Q2 with $19.5 billion in liquidity. It expects to gain the extra $2.2 billion in liquidity during the next quarter by selling leftover AAmenity kits on JetBlue flights to London for $39 each.

Cranky Earnings Day: Southwest

Southwest Airlines’s Q1 financials also posted today, with the airline claiming an alleged profit of $116 million thanks in large part to PSP revenue to cover all its losses. Without PSP and other special items, the airline would have posted a $1 billion loss for the quarter.

In Q1 2021, Southwest reported revenues of $2.05 billion, coming just above analyst predictions of $2.03 billion. Boy do those analysts have egg on their face now. The revenue figure is down 60% from 2019, but the airline did cut expenses down to $1.85 billion, a 57% drop from last year.

Southwest expects its Q2 capacity to increase to 90% compared to Q2 2019 as it continues to see strong bookings for the summer.  It ended the quarter with $15.3 billion in liquidity and $10.8 billion in outstanding debt.

Cranky Earnings Day: Alaska and Spirit

Alaska and Spirit also posted their Q1 earnings in the last 24 hours with both airlines posting a loss for the quarter.

Alaska’s loss was $131 million for the three months including CARES act funding and offsets, an improvement over its $232 million loss in Q1 2020 only thanks to government money. Without that, the airline would have posted a loss of $436 million.

Alaska reduced its debt by $100 million — from $1.7 billion at the end of 2020 — to $1.6 billion today. Alaska received $546 million in grants and loans from the federal government and anticipates another $80 million at the end of his month. Total revenue for the quarter for Alaska was $797 million with $958 million in expenses, excluding the PSP cash. The airline ended the quarter with $5.3 billion of liquidity including $3.5 billion in cash.

Spirit released its financials for anyone willing to pony up $9.99 to see the release. Lucky for you, here at Cranky Daily we paid up. Spirit posted a Q1 loss of $112 million on revenues of $461 million. As is the norm for Spirit, $599 of its $461 million came from airfare, with the remaining $460,999,401 coming from fees and add-ons.

Spirit ended the quarter with $1.9 billion worth of liquidity which would have been $1,900,000,039, but a gate agent mistakenly let a passenger board with a free carry-on. That gate agent has been fired.

Radixx Reservation System Down

Radixx, a reservation system that serves many of Sabre’s low-cost carrier customers, has been out of service for more than a day, leaving several airlines in a lurch, unable to sell tickets online.

Some airlines can sell tickets at airport points of sale, and for most of the affected airlines, airport operations are operating normally – or as normal as can be for these airlines. Online check-in is not working, and passengers are being required to check-in at the airport.

The affected airlines are from all over the world and include Avelo Airlines and Eastern Airlines in the United States. Other impacted carriers include Air Belgium, Air Transat, Arkia, FlySafair, Peach, Sky, and Wingo.

Sabre reports that it was malware that caused the meltdown and not a crude attempt at upselling these airlines to more expensive Sabre systems that actually (usually) function. The company hopes to have the system back up and running later today in some form with the entire system fixed in the coming days. It is currently on hold with the cable company and the power company, as well as in line at the DMV in an effort to speed the repairs along.

Etihad to Overhaul Fleet

Etihad Airways CEO Tony Douglas said today that the airline plans to eliminate its entire B777-300ER fleet while grounding its A380s indefinitely in an effort to become a smaller, streamlined “boutique” airline. Fine, but at least it’s a boutique airline with gold-plated everything in its premium classes.

Douglas said Thursday that his airline has too diversified a fleet to remain operationally efficient. The airline has grounded its A380s since the onset of the pandemic last March and has no intentions to bring those ten airplanes out of storage. Etihad currently has 19 B777-300ER that it will need to find a buyer or be converted for another use such as office space, the world’s weirdest movie theatre, or yet another Alitalia fleet renewal.

Etihad will keep its focus on its B787 Dreamliners and A350-1000 aircraft going forward. The airline currently has 39 Dreamliners and five A350-1000s in its fleet with 15 more of the Airbii on order.

• airBaltic signed an agreement to build a new cargo hub at its base in Riga.
• Aer Lingus has begun a new route from Belfast to Cornwall/Newquay (NQY).
• Air Serbia plans to put its new A330 named for Serbian hero Nikola Tesla on its Belgrade to JFK route after it takes delivery of the plane this weekend. The aircraft has to make two intermediate stops en route to New York to find an electric charging station in the Atlantic.
• Alsie Express is set to resume scheduled ops for the first time since January.
• Andorra Airlines has begun revenue operations after the airline had trouble making its finances balance offering all its flights for free.
• Emirates is resuming its flight to Mexico City via Barcelona on July 2.
• Nordwind Airlines will begin a new route from Kaliningrad (KGD) to Minsk (MSQ), operating weekly beginning April 30.
• Rex, who is a good boy, has taken delivery of its sixth B737-800NG aircraft.
• Sky Mali secured a wet-leased E145 aircraft. It did not acquire the plane through its rival Sky Mall.
• T’Way Air has s’ecured leases for additional A330 aircraft.

The rotation of the earth really makes my day. Happy Earth Day!

American & JetBlue Grow Northeast Alliance

American and JetBlue announced the next phase of their (legal for now) Northeast Alliance with a new flight to India for AA, the elimination of 50-seat jets in New York, and the two airlines swapping slots.

American is adding international service from JFK to New Delhi (DEL) beginning October 31. The flight will operate on a B777-200 aircraft 3x-weekly, except for holidays when it goes daily between November 17 and June 3.

Domestically, both airlines are expanding their reach out of LaGuardia with nine new destinations between them, and JetBlue’s six new routes from LGA being operated using American’s slots. The two will also combine for nine new destinations out of Boston, with JetBlue also adding six from JFK.

There’s a whole lot going on, and we don’t have enough room to tell you about it in this format. So, for a full breakdown of the news, visit today’s post at crankyflier.com.

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US and Canada Extend Border Closure Again

The border closure between the United States and Canada has been extended for another month, this time to May 21. Reports say that the U.S. government is getting closer to relaxing border and entry restrictions as the vaccine rollout continues to grow, but with Canada going in the opposite direction right now this announcement was inevitable.

The border between the two countries has been closed since March 20 of last year and the closure has been extended, one month a time, ever since.

Despite the land border being closed in both directions with the exception of essential traffic, Canadians are not prohibited from entering the United States via air. Americans can fly into Canada only for essential reasons, or to transit to a third country. Americans can also drive into Canada at three pre-determined checkpoints if their intent is to continue to Alaska. Those continuing onto Alaska will have their car registered by the Canadian government and will be given a timetable of all the flights into the state as a reminder that much faster travel options exists.

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Alaska On the Path to Zero

Alaska Airlines announced its commitment to reducing its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2040, a full decade sooner than United pledged last month. At this rate, Delta will be forced to announce its plan to to reach net-zero carbon emissions by this Christmas.

Alaska’s roadmap to net-zero emissions by 2040 includes the following focus areas: fleet renewal, operational efficiency, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), novel propulsion, high-quality carbon offsetting technology, replacing water from on-board toilets with melted snow from Alaskan wilderness, and removing all on-board beverage options to reduce weight except Coke Zero.

Alaska also announced five-year goals to reduce waste through more sustainable packaging and restarting its inflight recycling program. The airline is considering removing all on-board packaging for food and drink and instead dropping everything into passengers laps and letting them sort it out for themselves.

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United’s Travel-Ready Center Adds Testing

United’s Travel-Ready app has given passengers the chance to upload testing or vaccination verification to ease travel for several months now. It’s now going to be more useful, enabling United customers to schedule a COVID test at an approved testing site while confirming that the completed test is accepted based on the guidelines of the customer’s final destination.

Upon completion of a successful test, passengers will see a note that they are “travel-ready,” and receive their boarding pass. To ensure that travelers truly are “travel-ready,” the app will also be programmed to send helpful reminders just after passing through security, like “oh hey, did you remember to lock the back door?” This will presumably send travelers into a tortured panic that will result in passengers needing to change to a later flight… by paying a hefty fare difference, of course. Gotta pay for that “no change fee” policy somehow.

The ability to schedule the test and upload it in one location is designed to make travel easier for most passengers. The airline has over 200 testing sites available and plans to add more in coming weeks.

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Boutique Adds Three

Boutique Air is putting three new destinations on its route map with new flights to Burlington, VT (BTV), New Orleans, and Las Vegas.

The airline has been in growth mode over the last year, adding more than ten new destinations despite having lost several EAS contracts across the country.

Burlington will be the airline’s first destination in Vermont, and it will fly to the city daily from Boston. The nonstop flight will be Burlington’s first service to Boston since 2008. Boutique is adding 3x-weekly service to New Orleans from Greenville, MS (GLH) operating on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Although GLH is an EAS airport, the New Orleans route is not a part of the EAS program, with Boutique operating it solely based on the revenue generated from transporting drunken revelers down to Bourbon Street.

Lastly, the airline will return to Las Vegas, where it once flew from 2014-16. Boutique will serve Vegas with 4x-weekly service from Merced, CA (MCE). Similar to Greenville, Merced is an EAS airport but Boutique is flying this one on its own, which is safer anyway since most EAS service to LAS ends up seeing the EAS subsidy lost on the slot machines inside the terminal.

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Airline Potpourri

• American expects to add 300 pilots by the end of the year with another 600 to be added back in 2022.
• Global Crossing Airlines announced a $10 million financing deal with Global Logistics, Inc. These two have the entire globe covered.
• Ryanair is launching three new routes to the UK and increased frequencies to Greece for this summer.
• SkyUp is adding 3x-weekly service from Kiev (KBP) to London/Luton (LTN) beginning June 24.
• Smartwings is adding to its operation from Poland, serving 28 destinations from six Polish gateways this summer.
• Stobart Air, which operates as Aer Lingus Regional, is basing five airplanes at Belfast to operate to six other destinations in the United Kingdom.
• TUI Fly Netherlands is resuming its operation of the B737 MAX.
• Volaris is adding eight A320neo aircraft this year, because it found it could get them for cheap.

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Andrew’s Moment of Levity

The CEO of IKEA was elected president of Sweden yesterday. He’s expected to have his cabinet together by the weekend.

American to Resume Beverage Service

Aisle passengers on American Airlines this summer beware, as the airline announced that their elbows will once again be in potential danger with beverage service returning to domestic flights in first class on May 1 and in economy on June 1.

In first class, full complimentary beverage service will resume on May 1, but this won’t be a major change. AA has been offering the full beverage menu to first class domestic passengers on-demand.

On the less fancy side of the curtain, a limited service will resume on June 1 to include canned drinks, juice, and water. The full beverage service, with buy-on-board, will return sometime this summer. Until then, passengers will still need to purchase overpriced, bland dining options in the airport terminal until American makes its own overpriced, bland offerings available once again.

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State Department Adds to Do Not Travel List

The State Department is planning to add about 130 more countries to its Level 4 – Do Not Travel – designation, putting approximately 80% of the world’s countries in that category. It’s unclear how many will then be demoted to secret Level 5 — Seriously, Do NOT Even Think About Traveling There.

Thirty-four of about 200 worldwide nations are currently listed in the most restrictive Level 4. Level 3 is “reconsider travel,” Level 2 is “exercise increased caution,” and Level 1 is “Canada.”

The government said that the change doesn’t necessarily imply a change in how the new countries on the list are handling the pandemic or the situation in the countries, but “reflects an adjustment in the State Department’s Travel Advisory system to rely more on existing epidemiological assessments.” This new strategy will prioritize CDC data over its previous actions which included throwing darts at countries on a world map and assigning them a level based on the color of the dart.

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Delta Launches New Flight to Seoul

Delta Air Lines announced a new 3x-weekly flight from Portland, OR (PDX) to Seoul/Incheon (ICN) beginning this fall.

The new flight will launch on October 1 and will connect Portland with the home of Delta’s joint venture partner Korean Air. It will operate the new flight on an A330-200 featuring 34 seats in Delta One.

The flight to Seoul will be the third long-haul route for Delta out of Portland, joining flights to Amsterdam and Tokyo/Haneda. Portland only sees domestic flights on Delta to its hubs, making this flight more about connections in Seoul than feeding domestic connections. It also potentially puts the Portland-Tokyo flight on the chopping block — if some important corporate clients allow it — as Delta moves more of its Asian connecting traffic out of Tokyo and into Seoul.

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Boeing Planning to Transfer Ops Center to FedEx 

Boeing is in the final stages of a deal to transfer its Dreamlifter Operations Center at Paine Field in Everett, WA (PAE) to FedEx. The transfer, once completed, will effectively end speculation that 787 Dreamliner production could resume in Everett since being moved to Charleston, SC.

FedEx will use the airport as a cargo hub, joining Alaska and United which fly scheduled commercial service at the airport and Boeing which will still use the airport for delivery and test flights.

FedEx is expected to take over sometime this summer, with Boeing agreeing to concessions to get the deal done including the manufacturer making the $1.8 million lease payment due to Snohomish County on November 1 and sending 100 $10 Starbucks gift cards to FedEx headquarters in Memphis. Boeing made the mistake of sending the gift card via FedEx, and they are currently lost in transit. FedEx has told Boeing it would not sign the final transfer papers until FedEx finds the gift cards being sent to FedEx.

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Hong Kong & Singapore Travel Bubble On Schedule for May

A proposed travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore is on schedule to begin sometime next month despite an increase in positive cases in Hong Kong likely linked to new strains of the virus.

The two cities are expected to outline the plans for the bubble within the next two weeks.  The news came as Singapore announced it would relax restrictions to visitors from Hong Kong effective immediately. The require isolation period has been cut in half from 14 to seven days and travelers can wait out the isolation from their home or hotel rather than a dedicated government facility.

Travelers are likely to be considered fully vaccinated for the purposes of this travel bubble 14 days after their final vaccine shot. Both governments want to set the beginning of the travel bubble far enough in advance that travelers on both sides have time to complete their vaccinations and come up with lies to tell their families as to why they need to take the trip.

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Airline Potpourri

• Air Canada is finalizing an interline agreement with Pascan Aviation.
• Belavia or not, the airline is in discussion with Boeing to defer its current 737 MAX deliveries.
• Constanta Airlines, which always does the opposite of what it thinks it should do, has been granted a foreign air carrier permit to operate between Ukraine and the United States.
• JetBlue has hired Discover the World to lead its UK sales efforts.
• Loong Air of China is adding an A321neo after a loong negotiation with Airbus.
• Nouvelair is relaunching service to both London/Gatwick and Manchester. Twice-weekly service to both cities will operate from Tunis (TUN) to Gatwick and Monastir (MIR) to Manchester.
• Terra Avia added an A320 to its fleet.
• Turkish is reinstating business class benefits for travelers including reopening business class lounges at select airports and operating its Exclusive Drive transfer service.
• United is resuming nonstop service from Humboldt County Airport (ACV) to Denver with daily service beginning June 3.
• Uzbekistan Airways is planning to launch an IPO before 2024.

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Andrew’s Moment of Levity

What do you call a French man wearing sandals? Phillipe Philoppe.

United’s Busy Day: Adds Three Routes, Releases Q1 Financials

United Airlines announced three new international routes this morning, adding flights for the summer to countries which have reopened to vaccinated travelers. Then several hours later, the airline released its Q1 financial results at the end of the trading day Monday.

Beginning this July, United will offer new service to: Dubrovnik, Croatia (DBV) from Newark 3x weekly starting July 8 along with Athens from Washington/Dulles and Reykjavik from Chicago/O’Hare daily starting July 1. Dubrovnik is a new dot on United’s map, with Athens and Reykjavik giving United customers a second U.S. gateway along with Newark.

The idea here seems to be that any country that’s opening to American travelers will get service from United. In related news, Iran said it allow Yemen to open its borders to Americans immediately, just to test United’s willingness to follow through on this strategy.

On the earnings side, the airline turned to positive cash flow in March despite posting a $1.4 billion loss for the quarter. Total operating revenue was $3.2 billion, a 66% drop from Q1 2019. Cash burn ended up at $9 million per day, an improvement of more than $10 million per day from Q4 2020.

United ended the quarter with $21 billion in liquidity, also known as “a silly amount of cash.” Besides cash, that includes $3 billion worth of Polaris pajamas and amenity kits that remain in storage and an $11 million life-sized recreation of Westeros designed by the network planning team to perform skits to convince Scott Kirby to allow the airline to begin serving Dubrovnik.

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JetBlue Receives Regulatory Approval for London

JetBlue was granted regulatory approval from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority early Monday, giving the airline permission to fly transatlantic routes to London while serving Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and blue potato chips to its passengers.

The permit issued by the UK was the first from the country since Brexit. It had to dig out the old paperwork which was unfortunately soiled by a forgotten, greasy bag of chips. It promised JetBlue it will get a better copy when it has time to type up a new one on its latest version of WordPerfect.

With slots secured at Heathrow and regulatory approval received from the United Kingdom, JetBlue is expected to announce its schedule for its flight flights across the pond soon.

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France Plans to Relax Border Restrictions

Wine and cheese fans can rest easy tonight with the knowledge France is undergoing discussions to open its borders to Americans as soon as next month. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday  he is hopefully going to launch enhanced travel privileges into France for citizens of non-EU countries – including the United States – provided the travelers have proof of immunization.

The French government is still working out the full details, but they are expected to surrender to the terms of the White House soon enough. Macron said the government is in the final stages of developing the digital vaccine certificate that would be the key to opening the country’s borders up to tourists this summer. Originally the country was going to allow vaccines or testing to enter, but once it realized that requiring a vaccine would bar all children under 16 from entering, it immediately opted only for that option.

France is down to approximately 344 positive cases per day per 100,000 people. The country has distributed about 17 million doses of the vaccine, which equals ~12.7% of the country’s population.

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Southwest Will Gladly Give You a Burger on Tuesday if You Pay for Two Today

Southwest Airlines introduced a new scam subscription plan for Rapid Rewards points that appears to be the worst deal since the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

At its core, the “best offer” asks you to pay the airline $1,429.92 in cash today. In exchange, you will receive a monthly payment of Rapid Rewards points, that at the end of the year totals 80,000. Rapid Rewards is a revenue-based program, meaning we can do simple math to see exactly what value a Rapid Rewards point has. Following Southwest’s “enhancement” of the program last week, it now takes 78 points for one dollar in fare, giving each point a value of about 1.2 cents per, while this program sells them to you at about 1.79 cents per point, which is a horrendously bad deal.

The airline is so excited that people might actually buy the subscription packages, it’s launching a buy two, get one program during its on-board drink service. In the new program, passengers pay for two premium beverages but are only given one. Spirit and Ryanair are said to be studying both programs very closely.

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New Airline Launches on Mars

At 6:46 a.m. EDT this morning, NASA confirmed the operation of an airline on Mars when the Ingenuity Mars helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. A poll taken immediately after the announcement showed that 83% of the traveling public would already prefer connecting through Mars than Newark, despite the added flying time, given the opportunity.

The solar powered helicopter became airborne for the first time at 3:34 a.m. EDT, roughly 45 minutes later than planned in the most recent OAG flight schedule. With the delay, NASA offered 5,000 points to those on board the historic flight as compensation. What the points can do is not known as of press time.

The initial flight demonstration was autonomous – piloted by onboard guidance, navigation, and control systems running algorithms developed by NASA in conjunction with three regional jet captains making $18 an hour. The data from the flight was sent to NASA from Mars traveling the hundreds of millions of miles using orbiting satellites and NASA’s Deep Space Network. The satellites were used because the Ingenuity could not get Gogo to connect for anything more than sending an email, despite having the monthly subscription.

NASA named the Martian airfield where the flight took place Wright Brothers Field. Despite seemingly being alone on Mars, when the crew landed their only option for refreshments was a $12 cup of sliced melon and grapes and a $7 bottle of water from the Wright Brothers Field Hudson News location.

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Airline Potpourri

• Air Inuit secured a C$28 million contract to operate and maintain the fleet of state-owned power utility company Hydro-Québec.
• Bamboo Airways is exploring opportunities to fly to the United States after reports its chief rival Vietnam Airlines is doing the same. There’s no report as to what Bamboo would do if Vietnam Airlines jumped off a bridge.
• Cebu Pacific is receiving a $250 million investment from the World Bank and equity firm Indigo Partners.
• EgyptAir signed a partnership MOU with Sudan Airways.
• flyDubai announced new seasonal summer routes, growing its network to 78 destinations in 46 countries.
• Green Airways chartered two E190s from German Airways to make its competitors green with envy.
• Gulf Air will begin flying to Tel Aviv from its Manama, Bahrain (BAH) hub on June 3 with twice-weekly flights.
• Lufthansa extended its partnership with Condor through Spring 2022.
• Poste Air Cargo operated its first international cargo flight from its Rome/FCO base to Tel Aviv last week using one of its B737-400F aircraft.
• Silver will begin twice-weekly service between New Orleans and Jacksonville on June 3.
• Singapore plans to resume first class service this June. The airline would like to clarify that you must actually purchase a first class ticket to receive first class service.
• Turkish has further scaled back its current order for the MAX from 63 to 13 firm orders with 40 still on option and ten canceled.
• United Nigeria Airlines is adding two more E175LR aircraft to expand its domestic operation.

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Andrew’s Moment of Levity

I usually don’t brag when I go to expensive places, but I just got back from the gas station.