Alaska Announces Four New Routes
Alaska Airlines announced four new routes for this summer, all of which connect California and Montana — two states that both have names that end in “a” and are often confused for each other.
The new routes will all be operated by 76-seat Embraer 175 aircraft. The airline will launch:
- 2x-weekly Los Angeles to Kalispell (FCA) between May 20 and September 7
- 3x-weekly San Diego to Kalispell between May 20 and September 7
- 5x-weekly San Diego to Bozeman (BZN) between May 20 and September 7
- 1x-weekly San Francisco to Bozeman between June 17 and September 7
With airlines looking towards outdoor-based destinations, Bozeman has been a winner, adding several new routes and destinations on multiple airlines. In addition to this announcement from Alaska, Southwest announced last week it would begin flying Denver and Las Vegas to Bozeman. American will launch a flight from Phoenix while Allegiant recently added three new cities to its Bozeman schedule.
Lufthansa Group Posts 5.5 Billion Euro Loss in 2020
Lufthansa Group posted its financial report for 2020 and the results are great if your favorite color is red, otherwise not so much.
The group lost a grand total of €5.5 billion in 2020 on revenues of just €13.6 billion, a massive drop from €36.4 billion in 2019. The group’s six airlines combined to have just 110,000 employees at the end of 2020, a drop of 20% from the end of 2019. On the bright side, Lufthansa Cargo achieved a record result of €772 million profit, after the program earned just €1 million in the black in 2019.
The group expects another net loss in 2021, but one that will be much easier to swallow. It plans to be back to 90% of its pre-pandemic capacity by the middle of the decade. Lufthansa ended 2020 with around €10.6 billion in cash reserves, a figure it is going to need if the rumor of Lufthansa buying up Alitalia are true.
Of the cash it has on hand, approximately €3.3 billion came from government loans in the wake of the pandemic, of which approximately €1 billion has already been paid back. The rest is stored up in sauerkraut futures and a 33% ownership stake in Wheneverfest.
New York Reduces Restrictions for Vaccinated Travelers
The state of New York is reducing the requirements it placed on domestic travelers to the state provided they have received a COVID vaccine within the last 90 days.
Those arriving in New York who have been vaccinated within 90 days are no longer required to quarantine or test out upon arrival. In reality, the change will not affect many travelers as New York’s quarantine has been loosely enforced – at best – similar to how it enforces ethical standards for elected leaders.
Those who have not received the vaccine, received it more than 90 days prior, or that are entering the state from another country will still be required to test negative upon arrival or quarantine for ten days.
In addition to loosening some entry requirements, the state is also prepared to roll back some of the restrictions on event and entertainment locations, with venues that have less than 10,000 people able to open at 33 percent capacity. It plans to keep harsh requirements on venues with more than 10,000 seats as a favor to Knicks and Rangers fans, giving them an excuse to not spend money to see their teams play at Madison Square Garden.
Lufthansa to Retire Super Jumbos
Lufthansa is retiring its fleet of super jumbo jets as part of a restructuring to emerge smaller and more efficient after the pandemic.
CEO Carsten Spohr confirmed that Lufthansa is retiring its 14 A380s along with 10 A340-600s and eight Boeing 747-400s as part of its pandemic-related restructuring. It also plans to phase out other widebody aircraft including its A330-200s, A340-300s, B767-300ERs, B777-200s, B707-300s, DC-8-60s, and IL-86 aircraft, a list which is only slightly exaggereated beyond the surprising truth. In addition to those passenger aircraft, it will also phase its MD-11 freighter aircraft out of service later this year
By the middle of the decade, Lufthansa Group as a whole plans to reduce the number of aircraft in its fleet from 800 to 550. With its restructured fleet, Lufthansa plans to replace the A380 with the B747-8. The retirement of the MD-11 cargo aircraft was supposed to happen in 2020, but the airline held off due to the resurgence of cargo ops amidst the pandemic. Moving forward, it plans to operate the B777 freighter as it main cargo aircraft alongside its new fleet of Convair 880s and Handley Page Heralds.
EU Hopes to Boost Summer Travel With Vaccine Passport
European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen announced she plans to put forward legislation for a vaccination passport later this month. The EU vaccination passport – in reality a certificate of vaccination – would allow its citizens to freely travel between other counties within the bloc. It would apply to citizens of all EU nations except France as no one really wants the French visiting their country.
Travelers with the passport would not be subject to any quarantine upon arrival within the EU and would not face any further flight restrictions.
The European Commission is expected to announce the passport legislation later this month on March 17 guaranteeing that no one from Ireland will be sober enough to read the document. The legislation draft will lay out all the details of the proposal including whether or not it will be extended to the UK and British citizens, because if anyone knows how to party post-pandemic, it’s the British.
Airline Potpourri
- Breeze Airways now plans to launch its inaugural flights this summer.
- Etihad’s 2020 financials were released today, with the airline posting a loss of $1.7 billion. Etihad flew 76% fewer passengers during the year and earned just $1.2 billion in revenue, but what are numbers anyway?
- Korean Air is transforming one of its B747-8 aircraft into a VIP configuration for use by the South Korean military in order to show North Korea that “mine’s bigger than yours.”
- NetJets signed a purchase order for 20 supersonic jets. In other news, George Jetson and his boy Elroy just purchased a NetJets membership.
- Viva Air has added a second U.S route as it plans to serve Orlando via its hub in Medellin, Colombia (MDE).
- Volotea will open a base in Venice (VCE) where it will house its first A320.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I asked the librarian where the section for book on paranoia was. “It’s right behind you,” she whispered to me.