Every good soap opera runs its course. I’m not sure we’ve reached that point yet, but it seems like a good time to check in with you, the audience, and see if you still like these weekly schedule posts or if it’s time to cancel the show. Please vote and let me know.
Loading …Most of the good residents of Airlineville are pretty set with their spring break and Easter plans. Now they just wait to see if all those revelers actually show up. But that doesn’t mean everyone has finished. As usual, the Globe, the Taxi, and Pualani are keeping everyone waiting to see what April will ultimately look like. We’ll be watching the Cirium rollout next weekend, assuming all three will go then. We’re getting way too close for it to be delayed any longer.
Elsewhere in Airlineville, the Sun decided it was time to think about the fall. It now has flights to all your favorite small cities through mid-November, plus plenty you’ve probably never even heard of. Meanwhile, the Eagle invited everyone to pull out some Garrett’s popcorn to see what it had in store for Chicago for the summer. Spoiler alert… it’s all about leisure.
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Allegiant Files the Fall
Allegiant extended its schedule from the end of August through mid-November. That’s generally a more quiet time of year, but Allegiant is not playing games. Right now, it expects capacity to be more than 20 percent higher in September and October compared to 2019.
American Does More Leisure with a Chicago Twist
American continues to pour on the leisure routes with the hope that they will pay off. This week, it was Chicago that received the lion’s share of the growth with Billings, Fresno, Nantucket, Santa Barbara, and Spokane getting flights. Asheville and Panama City will return this summer. Plus, Harlingen, Key West, and Sarasota will get extended through the summer. In August, Ontario will also see Chicago flights return with 2x daily. It wasn’t all Chicago though. Asheville also gets a Washington/National flight.
Delta Flattens Seattle Out
This week, Delta gave Seattle the same treatment it gave Detroit by removing variation by day of week starting this summer. Now, every day will see the same number of flights except, for some reason, Washington/Dulles which will have 2x daily except on Saturday where it’ll have only 1x daily.
Delta will also fly Salt Lake to Moab this summer. It looks like Salt Lake – Durango along with Minneapolis/St Paul – Lincoln and San Juan also get added, but those will be year-round.
JetBlue Sets April
It was a little delayed, but JetBlue has now filed all the new flights it announced as part of the American partnership. There’s not much to discuss there since it’s already been covered, but JetBlue did also file April schedules. April capacity was pulled down 39.8 percent. It is now down 29 percent compared to 2019.
Southwest Takes April Down Again
Southwest was hoping it could get away with flying April down only about 10 percent versus 2019. That was too optimistic. It pulled down an additional 20 percent this week, but that wasn’t all. Southwest also filed the schedules for Bozeman and Fort Walton Beach, as it announced during the week. It’s also going to fly Atlanta – Panama City and Pensacola this summer, plus it brings back Pensacola to Baltimore. Houston – Fort Myers is back, and Sarasota now gets flights to Columbus, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh. Richmond will get a Chicago/Midway flight too.
In other interesting news, the new Houston/Intercontinental service has both New Orleans and Denver losing a daily flight. This looks a lot like what happened at O’Hare which lost a daily flight as well before it started. I find it hard to believe they overshot on both of these cities with initial schedules, so I’m betting there’s more to this story.
Spirit Files Milwaukee and Louisville Schedules
Also announced this week were Spirit flights to Milwaukee and Louisville. Those schedules were filed this weekend.
Other Randomness
- Air France now won’t fly from JFK to Paris/Orly until the end of October.
- Austrian won’t fly to LAX this summer.
- British Airways has kept Atlanta, Denver, and Vegas suspended through May.
- Copa will keep Boston and Chicago/O’Hare suspended through April.
- French Bee has decided to extend the Newark – Paris/Orly flight suspension into May.
- Lufthansa filed its summer schedules, including new Eurowings Discover service to Anchorage. All other US markets see some level of capacity reduction versus original plans.
- Qantas canceled all US (and other long-haul) flights until the end of October.
- South African has canceled JFK to Johannesburg through the end of schedule. That’s something of a surprise, but I have to wonder if it will come back again with a stop whenever SAA flies again.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode… depending upon the results of the poll.
