They may not have celebrated in large groups, but most of the residents of Airlineville opted to take much of the week off and celebrate Thanksgiving. What they’re thankful for, I have no idea. It’s been a pretty awful year.
The Eagle and the Heart did absolutely nothing this week. They certainly both deserved a break, albeit for different reasons. At the other end of the spectrum we find Pualani, who filed schedules for January and February in one fell swoop. I suppose she had to do something while she waited for that kalua turkey to finish roasting.
For everyone else, this was a week of tinkering out in the garage, and it was all about cutting. I see a lot of red on the dashboard, and it is not a feel-good story.
All this and more this week as I look through the Cirium data. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Allegiant Joins the SNA Party
Allegiant has gotten around to filing its new service to Orange County and Spokane, among others. In Orange County, it’ll run up to 17 weekly flights (almost entirely Thurs/Fri/Sun/Mon) to eight cities. You can see full details in the press release. But it wasn’t all a growth story for the airline in this unusually-active week. Allegiant also made some cuts around the system. In fact, December and January available seat miles are both down 3 percent. But the cuts are only before December 16 and after January 4. It’s a pre- and post-holiday thing, weakness around the edges.
Delta Cuts Again
It’s cutting time once again for Delta. December is down 3 percent and January is down 5 percent. In December, the cuts are closer to 1 percent for the first half of the month and then it accelerates during the holidays. In January, it’s mostly a 5 percent cut across the board, but the Tuesday after the holidays and the Sunday before MLK Day are both pulled down from a peak to an off-peak schedule.
Interestingly, for the first time in awhile, Boston got a little love with more winter service to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, and Orlando. Meanwhile, West Yellowstone is back with a couple daily flights next summer from Salt Lake.
Frontier Cuts Very Late
It’s normal to see Frontier cutting close to departure, but this one is pretty steep. From December 1 – 7, Frontier removed 148 flights, or 9 percent of its schedule. That, in case you don’t have a calendar handy, is for flights starting TOMORROW.
Hawaiian Files January and February
The one airline to do anything substantial this week was Hawaiian. It filed its January and February schedules, though February may only be accurate for domestic travel. Interisland is actually being cut back compared to current schedules with Hilo – Kahului and Kona – Lihu’e being suspended in January along with Honolulu – Lana’i and Moloka’i in February. Mainland flying shows very modest growth but nothing notable.
JetBlue Prunes As Always
JetBlue did its usual later cutting into December, but there wasn’t much of interest in the broad cuts. Most notable… JFK to Albuquerque is going less than daily and JFK to Georgetown is already being cut back, with some flights now routing via San Juan. So, yeah, not that interesting.
And Now, a Spirit Question
Spirit did almost nothing this week, but there is a trend that has me confused. Every single week, Spirit cuts Managua. Is there a reason for this? Are the Nicaraguans rolling things out week by week and Spirit has to respond? It’s just odd to see over and over again.
United Does Some Holiday Trimming
United was busy trimming as well this week. Between December 17 and January 4, United cut 5.5 percent of flights. Newark saw more than 15 percent of departures removed and Dulles was next at 8.5 percent. No hub was spared, but the Northeast clearly took the brunt of the pain here.
Other Randomness
Here’s a new feature I thought I’d throw into the mix when there was anything of interest. These are some highlights (or lowlights) from the other airlines that I don’t normally cover.
- Aeromexico has delayed its return to Monterrey from the US. JFK, Los Angeles, and Vegas service resumption has been pushed out to March.
- JAL’s new low-cost carrier ZIPAIR has filed its first flights between Tokyo/Narita and Honolulu. The first flight goes December 19, and it’ll operate 3 to 4 times a week.
- LATAM won’t fly from Boston to Sao Paulo or from LA and JFK to Santiago during the month of February.
- Southern Airways Express appears to be pulling out of its Texas operation in March with flights from DFW to Hot Springs, Harrison, and El Dorado going away along with the flights beyond to Memphis. Same goes for LAX to Imperial.
- Turkish has delayed the restart of Newark to Istanbul from January 2 to March 28.
And that’s it for this week’s not-so-exciting episode. Stayed tuned next week when I know there will be a lot more action on Skeds of air Lines.
