Last week, most of you liked the idea of doing a weekly news roundup, but not all. So I’m trying something a little bit different. I’m going to pick just a few links (3 this week), and then pick one as the featured link. That one will show up first and will help guide discussion. This week…
April 2016 Schedule is Here! No Foolin’! – Nuts About Southwest
Southwest rolled out its April schedule this week, and there are some interesting smaller-city changes hidden in the full list.
- Dayton loses service to Baltimore and Denver (besides seasonal Florida cancels) and instead gets new thrice daily service to Chicago.
- Des Moines loses its Chicago flights and instead gains St Louis.
- Flint loses Baltimore and Vegas (besides seasonal Florida cancels) and instead gets Chicago.
- Grand Rapids loses St Louis and one of its two Baltimore flights (besides seasonal Florida cancels). Instead, it gets 3 daily to Chicago.
- Greenville/Spartanburg is the oddest of all. It loses Baltimore, Chicago, and Houston. In their place? Three daily to Atlanta a mere 150 miles away.
- Wichita loses Chicago and Dallas and instead gets Phoenix and St Louis.
What do you make of this? It’s an interesting restructuring in these markets. It says to me that these markets weren’t working well before, so the airline is hoping a shifting of routes will fix the problem. Not a great sign for people in those cities.
And then, here are two other stories that caught my eye.
Arabian knight: Sir Maurice Flanagan’s proud legacy as a founding figure of Emirates – Arabian Business
This is a good read profiling the father of Emirates, Maurice Flanagan. What really stands out are the digs at Etihad and Qatar. US carriers have made this false attempt to lump the three of them into one bucket. But there is clearly no love lost between them.
Dream Team: Air Canada takes a ‘pit crew’ approach to 787 maintenance – Skies Magazine
Air Canada has apparently decided to have mechanics swarm 787s after landing in Canada. This has allowed the airline to speed up its turns.