Delta Cuts Summer Again, Reverses Italy Growth

Schedule Changes

Summer has now officially arrived here in Airlineville — at least from a travel perspective. It looks like many of the residents took the weekend off and headed to the beach. But not everyone was ready to enjoy.

The Widget flooded Cirium data with even more reductions to its summer plans. The cuts were all over, but in a surprise, those Italian vacation plans were hit particularly hard.

The Taxi has finally made some plans for the winter, oh, and that airline with Moxy filed schedules for the first time.

All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.

Air Canada Takes July Down Gradually

Air Canada has brought July down another 28 percent, but hey, it’s down only 73 percent vs 2019. For Canada, that’s downright optimistic. It’s putting bigger airplanes on Athens, but it cut pretty much everywhere else. Calgary and Montreal – London along with Toronto – Munich and Paris won’t fly through July, Toronto – Amsterdam won’t fly through August, and Vancouver – Frankfurt along with Toronto – Keflavik won’t fly through October. Good news for Castlegar, which is apparently a city. They’ll get flights to Vancouver this summer. But Vancouver – Halifax and Ottawa – Victoria apparently didn’t do well, because they’re gone.

Alaska Adds Belize

It was announced by press release, but this week Alaska filed its plans for Belize service from both Los Angeles and Seattle beginning in November. Maybe more interesting, however, is that Alaska won’t fly LA to Kona or Lihu’e this fall, both routes recently announced by Southwest. It also won’t fly to Orlando from San Francisco through the fall. (And by fall, I mean through mid-November.)

American Falls Asleep

It was a very quiet week for American. A handful of summer routes got extended through the fall including Chicago – Asheville, Myrtle Beach, and Pensacola along with Washington/National – Fort Myers which goes through the winter but that’s about it.

Delta Cuts Again

Delta took another 2 to 3 percent out of its summer schedule. In July, it’s now down more than 31 percent vs 2019. That’s lower than even perenially-conservative United. Delta also reversed all those Italy adds from last week, apparently thinking it was perhaps a bit too bullish on demand. Interestingly, Delta pulled back flights to Fort Myers from both Detroit and Minneapolis/St Paul. Sun Country must be happy.

There was some growth through the fall and winter with 1 extra daily flight in Atlanta – Albuquerque, Austin, and Monterrey; Los Angeles – Mexico City; New York/JFK – West Palm Beach; and Salt Lake – Austin.

Hawaiian Delays Papeete Again

Hawaiian didn’t do much this week, but it did remove Papeete from the July schedule. That will come back someday, but probably not until it’s easier for people to visit Honolulu from Papeete.

JetBlue Brings Back The Worst Market

JetBlue is going back to Worcester after it and every other airline pulled out during the pandemic. It wasn’t a good market before the pandemic, but now JFK service starts again in August with Fort Lauderdale coming online in October. I just assume this is being done to curry favor with Massport for something JetBlue wants in Boston. It’s a small price to pay.

Southwest Bulks Up July

As it’s wont to do, Southwest added back several lines of flying in July. This bumped up capacity about 2 and a half percent for the month.

Spirit Stretches Into 2022

Spirit has extended its schedule from mid-November through mid-February. This includes new routes from Louisville and St Louis down to Florida and Arizona.

United Reduces First Class

Next year, United has reduced its First Class capacity on 737-800/900 flights outside of the continental US and Canada. The 737-800s are selling only 12 seats instead of 16 while the 737-900s are selling only 16 instead of 20. This looks like a way to keep capacity lower so they can swap out airplanes if demand warrants closer to travel.

Other Randomness

  • Air Transat has added Montreal to Fort Myers and Miami into its winter schedule.
  • Alitalia won’t fly Boston – Rome or JFK – Milan in July despite the reopening of Italy.
  • Breeze filed its schedules with Cirium this week. We covered this in great detail for subscribers in Cranky Network Weekly this week.
  • Boutique is pulling down Portland – Bend from 2x daily to 1x. Meanwhile, Phoenix – Prescott disappears in June.
  • China Eastern has finally pulled down its summer flying to the US through August. It will only fly the 2x weekly JFK – Shanghai flight through then.
  • Contour is out of St Louis – Ft Leonard Wood in October and Nashville – Tupelo starting in November. Update: Contour is just pulling its schedule back in this market to only go through November. It will extend again later.
  • Copa is actually growing again. Panama City to Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Orlando all will get a 2nd daily this summer. Washington/Dulles gets an additional 4x weekly.
  • Denver Air Connection will now NOT be connecting Denver to Alliance (NE) or Telluride from November.
  • Were you going to fly on Eastern from Boston to Belo Horizonte this summer? Not anymore, the summer was canceled, but it was loaded as a winter flight now. New York/JFK and Miami to Quito along with Miami to Montevideo are also filed for winter, but will they operate? That’s always the question with Eastern.
  • Korean will drop Atlanta – Incheon down from a 747-8 to a 787-9 starting in August.
  • Lufthansa won’t bring Austin – Frankfurt back in July as previously planned.
  • Qantas has pulled all US flying until mid-December.
  • Tradewind will be flying the rich person express from Westchester to Newport (RI) this summer.
  • Turkish will bring Boston – Istanbul back up to daily starting in July.
  • Swoop, WestJet’s ULCC, filed its winter schedule to the US. It will fly Edmonton – Las Vegas, Orange County, Orlando/Sanford, Phoenix/Mesa, San Diego; Hamiilton – Orlando/Sanford, St Petersburg (FL); Toronto – Orlando/Sanford, Phoenix/Mesa, St Petersburg; and Winnipeg – Phoenix/Mesa. Those all look like pure leisure routes except for the Orange County flight.

That’s it for this week’s episode. Stay tuned next week for more Skeds of air Lines. If you’re looking for a more in-depth review, subscribe to Cranky Network Weekly. This week, we cover:

  • A Detailed Look at Breeze’s Schedule
  • Delta’s Recovery Falls Flat
  • Air Canada Cuts On a Curve
  • Delta Reverses Course in Italy
  • New St Louis Flights Show Spirit’s Focus

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43 comments on “Delta Cuts Summer Again, Reverses Italy Growth

  1. Surprised Elite Airways’ new HPN “focus city” didn’t make it into other randomness. Did they not file anything yet?

    1. Johosofat – They’ve rolled things out in dribs and drabs. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that they were going to fly Westchester to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. There’s also Melbourne (FL), Portland (ME), and Sarasota planned.

  2. Not sure why US domestic routes should continue to see cuts. Based on anecdotal observations I (and others) have made in flying over the past couple of months it looks like domestic travel is picking up steam very rapidly. Many packed flights because of increased demand combined with still depressed capacity. Airlines like DL are missing an opportunity here.

    However, I do get the international flying issues. Many countries are not seeing adequate vaccination numbers, have rising COVID case loads and/or remain in draconian lockdowns. Such problems definitely act as a barrier to getting international flight schedules back to normal.

    1. Could it be that we are pissed at Delta and American for their kneejerk reaction to Georgia’s election law?

  3. CF,

    Could the Delta pull down be more operational issues on getting the right crews in the right airplane types? One would think that wouldn’t be a problem 6 months after the first problem showed up around Thanksgiving. Or maybe just trying to do their part to hold down inventory to push up prices while waiting for the good ole business traveler to return in force?

    1. BeeInBigD – It’s always possible, but pulling down all the way out into Sep seems pretty odd for an operational issue. I think your last statement is right. This is about trying to prop up those yields by cutting capacity.

  4. I’m surprised to hear you say that United is selling less seats so they could reduce the size of aircraft. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? If they could sell more first class seats, that’s a good thing and they would want to put a larger aircraft in service to support the higher profit seats?

    United Reduces First Class
    Next year, United has reduced its First Class capacity on 737-800/900 flights outside of the continental US and Canada The 737-800s are selling only 12 seats instead of 16 while the 737-900s are selling only 16 instead of 20. “This looks like a way to keep capacity lower so they can swap out airplanes if demand warrants closer to travel.”

    Isn’t it always easier to put a smaller plane into service than upgrading the size of the jet?

    1. Pasadena Brian – So the way I see this is this way. They are looking at the market overall and let’s say there’s some market with a 737-800 that is just not filling up in the back. By selling only 12 seats up front, they can easily move down to a 737-700, better match capacity, and then not have to worry about one or two random flights where a group of people booked more than 12 seats and have to be moved. We’re so far out that I don’t think this will matter on most flights. I imagine they’ll open up the front cabins once it gets a couple months closer, but I’m sure I’ll report it when I see it.

  5. Delta and United said in the beginning of the pandemic that they would not chase market share and they have not.
    Europe is still trying to figure out how to allow vaccinated tourists in; there is still passenger significant resistance for international travel that requires multiple costly covid tests. Some countries are “more open” to tourists and people are going there with air service proportionately higher to those locations.

    Delta has simply rolled much of its Europe restart for another month as has been seen throughout the pandemic in all types of markets.

    Widebody aircraft will continue to be used more on the domestic system than DL would probably like, just as AA and UA are doing. It is possible to fill widebodies on domestic routes given high demand levels this summer and government aid but it is not sustainable going into the fall to keep all of that widebody capacity in domestic markets.

    1. > Europe is still trying to figure out how to allow vaccinated tourists in

      And vice versa. I don’t think most Europeans are allowed into the US at this time, with no announced plans or timelines from the US government that I am aware of.

  6. While other carriers are trying to rework their NETWORKS to adjust markets and frequency, Delta is facing something even more fundamental than that. With the severe decrease in business traffic, which Delta’s premium-pricing business strategy has traditionally relied upon, perhaps Delta is facing a change in its business STRATEGY itself. Can Delta gain a pricing premium on leisure travel? If it can, then they are in good shape. However, the fact that their July schedule has now been cut even below United’s schedule indicates to me that they are in a bit of a corner, revenue-wise. And let’s keep in mind that United derives more of its revenue from international travel than any U.S. carrier, meaning that we should expect United to be the last U.S. carrier to return to full strength. So, the fact that Delta has cut peak Summer even more than United has cut indicates a bit of a capitulation on Delta’s behalf. Of course, PSP-3 will help Delta this Summer (along with all the others).

    Just as American will have a day of reckoning on its debt/interest, so too will Delta have to accept that its revenue premium salad days are not as copious as before. Their July schedule tells us that they are remaining hunkered down (other than hub protection), basically hoping for a return of its bread-and-butter high-fare, high -yield business traveller. As Herb Kelleher used to say: “Hoping is not a strategy.”

    So we will watch and see if Delta adjusts its business model for a more leisure-oriented passenger or whether it stays the course and just keeps riding it out until adequate business travel returns. Or, perhaps, it can modify its business plan to squeeze more out of leisure and accept that business travel is essentially kaput for now. I’m sure their surveys and focus groups are providing data for when business travel will return and at what levels. But, for now, they are walking a tightrope. As our friend has indicated, Delta is protecting its hubs. But there is a LOT more out there than Delta’s hubs.

    1. You do realize that on a true apples to apples operational profit basis – aside from early retirement, fleet impairment and equity writedowns – Delta has posted the best (or perhaps least worst) of the big 3 throughout the pandemic. Delta has done the best job of cost control, has maintained a unit revenue premium, and has maintained share in its hubs and focus cities?

      United has done a good job financially but has given up share, esp. in EWR, ORD, and DEN to B6 and WN.
      Pre-covid, DL had and still has the best CASM performance, again stripped of all of the special items.
      Delta is not chasing market share in small and medium sized markets but most of those markets are really carried by AA and DL among the big 3 and they won’t determine the trajectory of either AA or DL.

      And the lack of capacity is because Delta (and United) aren’t interested in carrying deeply discounted leisure passengers and not because they are choosing not to carry business passengers or don’t have the network to do so.

      Europe will return when there is enough demand and testing requirements are easy enough. Same will be true for Latin America when they get enough vaccines in people to get the case counts down. Australasia will take the most time and that is more of a drag on United than anyone else.

      1. Care to elaborate?
        Delta lost the most money in 2020 of all the carriers.

        You can’t just exclude the cost of cutting employees then take the payroll benefit of doing that to claim best in class; you can’t trumpet the wisdom of equity investments for years (as you did numerous times also telling the rest of us they hadn’t really lost that equity for months — even after bankruptcy after bankruptcy of delta investments) then act like losing all that equity in an instant shouldn’t count in financials when it actually did matter; Delta also chose to keep a very diverse fleet to keep acquisition costs low and they paid for it in write down costs to start the simplification process — a process aa and UA had already been doing for years.

        Delta lost the most money in 2020. Period. That’s not a debate though I’m sure you’ll spend 15 paragraphs arguing about it.

        And Delta had a yield premium, never a revenue or PRASM premium as cranky as many have explained to you for months in great detail.

        1. No one is arguing that Delta didn’t lose the most money all factors considered – which accounting does.
          But when looking at the core immediate operation, Delta had the lowest losses during the pandemic
          Delta chose to get take the largest fleet writedowns which included getting rid of its 777 fleet and writing down fleet it intended to retire five years in advance. Delta now has the most fuel efficient longhaul fleet where fuel efficiency matters the most.
          Delta offered the most generous early retirement program in the history of the airline industry, ultimately thanks to the American taxpayer, which, btw, IS recorded as part of the “all in” profitability that you want to make sure is included. Perhaps you can let us know how each of the players did in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 when Delta DIDN’T take those massive special charges. I can tell you that Delta fared quite well.
          Revenue metrics might be interesting to airline people but investors, the people that own airlines, only care about the bottom line. If Spirit can do it via industry-best costs while Delta does it with high yield and a bunch of ancillary businesses such as Tech Ops and Amex, that is all stockholders care about.
          But, ultimately the issue here is about AA’s network and its partnerships.
          Some people struggle to accept that AA execs said for years that certain hubs did very well for them but others clearly did very poorly – as evidenced by AA’s bottom line profits and publicly available data – which does not include hub profitability for any airline.
          AA is outsourcing flying to low cost carriers.
          Just because AA’s strategies in some markets haven’t worked doesn’t mean everyone else has to also be doing well. In fact, they aren’t.
          DL and UA have not walked away from any of their hubs. Whatever redesignation Delta is doing with its focus cities doesn’t change its relative market share in any of those markets.
          Kevin,
          I doubt if DL is dropping the ready reserve program with the intent to increase their costs. It will be very worth watching; fairly detailed employee data is reported to the DOT and becomes public in time.
          Delta has long been far better at managing costs than AA and UA. DL’s relative “success” during the pandemic has been because it has done a better job of matching costs to “new” revenues than its peers even if it is taking costlier long-term steps that AA and UA have not.

          And let’s also keep in mind that Delta flies a much higher percentage of its network with mainline aircraft and employees. Delta’s move to increase benefits might provide greater career allure to potential employees (like WN does) than for AA and UA.

          And the circulating anonymous letter to the board has the potential to be much more harmful to Delta if it represents a large number of employees than adding benefit costs.

          1. Well… the usual “deflect deflect, make random off-topic comments about American” from Tim. You can go down your own rabbit trail there. It’s not what was being discussed.

            Of the MANY things that go into quarterly performance, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a massive 2020 loss by delta where they paid their employees a lot of money to leave delta would also, simultaneously, cause a lower payroll expense as well in the following quarters. That doesn’t make it a profitable thing to do all in as 2020 full year results showed.
            But we do know Delta didn’t have industry leading prasm in either quarter and they paid an enormous amount of money to lower the salary line for those two quarters you reference and it’s pretty useless to point to that lower expense in isolation and ignore the cost to do it. Investors don’t care about an individual quarter if delta spent billions the quarter before to get that single quarter.

            1. The taxpayers of the United States paid the majority of ALL US airlines’ salary and benefits for a year. Most airlines offered some buyouts. Delta simply chose to use the largest percentage of that government money to fund massive buyouts that will lower Delta’s labor costs for years to come esp. if Delta becomes much more efficient, as it is likely it will be because it has used its domestic fleet changes to increase the average size of aircraft to the highest of the 4 US carriers that use regional jets.
              Using mainline aircraft increases labor efficiency which allows an airline to spend more on salaries and benefits – just as WN – which doesn’t use regional jets – has done for years.
              Writedowns of DL’s equity losses in its partners were cash only; the disposition of the equity stakes is still part of the bankruptcy processes. The JVs are still intact. Those equity writedowns like the fleet writedowns become tax assets which Delta can use to reduce its future taxes. Companies cannot writedown losses from the decline in their stock price after stock buybacks. DL bought back the lowest percentage of its own stock of the big 4.

              None of which changes that AA, DL and UA will all add back international capacity on a market by market basis as demand rebuilds.

              This just happened to be DL’s week to push European market restarts.

            2. Julie–

              “…where they paid their employees a lot of money to leave delta would also, simultaneously, cause a lower payroll expense as well in the following quarters. ”

              To expand on your post a little bit:

              Almost 20% of the company took advantage of the Early Out, and left permanently. It’s also worth noting that something like 40% of the company took unpaid leaves ranging from 1 week to 1 year.

              At the same time, the majority those that stayed on saw their pay cut 25% (via an hour cut) for most of 2020.

              With all of that in play, it would’ve been really hard /not/ to have lower labor costs. To elide over those points is to be disingenuous (I’m not referring to you here. It’s a general statement).

        2. Yes, and that yield premium could become an Achilles Heel. It’s no coincidence that Breeze is focusing on ORF, CHS, and MSY: they are all Delta yield strongholds. Toss in some TPA too.

          It’s no coincidence that Southwest has surrounded ATL in the past few years with CHS, MYR, SAV, GSP, SRQ, ECP, PNS, VPS, MEM and a return to JAN. Those are all Delta strongholds too. And that doesn’t address how much yield has been syphoned away from ATL by Southwest’s unchecked growth in BNA. In the west, Southwest has ceded O&D in SLC to Delta, just has it has done in ATL. Yet Southwest maintains the second-largest presence in both of those cities so that Delta’s yields do not go unchecked. Meanwhile, it’s growing DEN to be its largest station and has additional “hubs” in PHX, LAS, and OAK, coupled with significant operations in SAN, LAX, SJC and SMF. I think it’s clear to see that Southwest is slowly taking the yields out of Delta’s spokes, leaving Delta with strength, but not unchecked strength, in its hubs. And this is why Delta is running mainline aircraft (717s) into secondary cities that Southwest does not serve: it can command a yield premium in those markets. But, as we have seen during the pandemic, Southwest is playing “connect-the-dots” and stripping yield from even secondary markets now. And that’s what Southwest has always done: they enter a market (Hawaii being the latest example), strip out the yields, and wait for the surrender (Alaska, so far). Once the capitulation is accomplished, they add more frequency to deter others from entering the void, thereby controlling both yield and market share, eventually.
          But Southwest too has learned the hunter can become the hunted. AirTran, under Bob Fornaro, sat all over Southwest until Southwest bought them out because they couldn’t run them out. And now Spirit is doing essentially the same thing, again under the watchful eye of Mr. Fornaro. So the industry is ever-changing and Delta’s historical reliance on high-yield traffic may require some adaptation. But Delta is a very well-run company, with a market cap of $30 billion, and global reach. It will be interesting to see where things stand when the Covid dust finally settles. No question that Delta will be left standing tall, but not unscathed.

          1. We can let a conversation about DL’s transatlantic cuts – which are part and parcel of the schedule changes that CF has reported on this site for about a year. Or we can accurately note the facts as they actually exist on the sidebars that you want to take – which apparently include a wholesale assessment of the threats to DL’s network.

            All of that and you missed that WN added service over the past year into MIA, IAH, and ORD and has a higher percentage of capacity in DEN compared to UA that any airline has ever had over the past 20 years.
            WN became the largest airline based on LOCAL DEN O&D years ago even though UA has been the largest LOCAL carrier by revenue because WN has figured out that it does best by flying 3-4 hour mainland US flights so has relatively few flights to the east coast- which UA has a much higher percentage of.
            DL@SLC is one of the few legacy carrier hubs that is UP in capacity compared to 2019 and that is without transatlantic flights.
            WN is indeed moving from a high frequency medium haul network to one that is increasing hub-based – but it is also

            You do realize that AA also has a hub in the SE – in CLT – and AA and DL are the top 1 and 2 carriers in nearly every market in the SE – with the two switching places depending on the city?
            You also realize that WN has virtually no nonstop service from ATL to the west coast, the first time that any airline – including FL – has not competed nonstop in most of those markets for literally decades.

            The notion that WN or any other carrier’s growth is a threat to DL but not other carriers including AA is more than a stretch. WN has simply traded its position in DL strength markets for a position in markets where it will have a higher share of the market.

            As much as you want to believe otherwise, DL has the lowest CASM of the big 3 and is thus no more dependent on business traffic than any other big 4 carrier. And DL’s CASM during the pandemic was closer to WN and B6 than it was to AA and UA. How quickly costs and revenues reset is far more important than what anyone necessarily did during the pandemic when airlines received tens of billions of dollars in government aid.

            We each get to have our opinions about the next steps of the industry but we don’t get to selectively ignore or not know facts and data that provide an accurate and balanced view of the industry and its players.

          2. Delta should consider a Chap 11 bankruptcy to lower costs. They need to reinvent themselves as a leisure airline with one class of service, dump international flying, get rid of all the widebodies, also keep the sports charters.

    2. Saw The Masters–

      There is another factor in play here as well. Many of those revenue “salad days” banked on a highly productive workforce and a huge percentage of workers not having any benefits. That ends this month, as the Ready Reserve program ends. 1000’s of DL workers will now have access to benefits (medical, 401k match, etc.) that DL will need to cover. The labor cost edge DL had over UA & AA will likely narrow.

      It’s true a lot of high-cost employees exited the company last year, but it’s also true that less flight activity means less chance to offset those costs. Government $$$ helps, but September’s comin’. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to CASM costs going into Q3 & Q4.

      1. Thank you, Kevin, for that additional color and forward-looking information. From your posts here, you really seem to have your finger on the pulse of Delta’s front-line, customer-facing, employees. Best of luck to you, Delta, and all the airlines.

        1. Thanks! Having a front row seat to 2020 has been…something.

          We’re not there yet, but I see a lot of good signs locally. I’m cautiously optimistic.

  7. I’m a a little curious about AS adding BZE, especially from Los Angeles. There’s a good-sized (relative to Belize’s population at least) in LA, and Belizians use LAX to connect to Taiwan – Belize still recognizes the ROC as the government of China. But UA already flies BZE-LAX and is partners with EVA, offering alliance connections to Taipei. And there’s plenty of service from the US to Belize already. Is the UA service infrequent enough to leave an opportunity here?

    As for B6 in Worcester, the ORH-JFK route has to be some sort of suck-up to Massport. BOS is only an hour away and B6 offers a vast range of flights from there. ORH-FLL I can sort of understand – it allows for southward connections and winter access to warmth, especially presuming that the cruise market is recovering by then.

    1. CraigTPA – I think this is a pure leisure move for Alaska in Belize.
      They’re just looking for the next best leisure destination and they have Mexico and Costa Rica covered, so they’ll give this a shot.

      1. Makes sense, it’s basically “hey, we have planes kinda sitting around, Hawaii is still a PITA because of COVID, so why not?”, especially with several new high-end resorts opening in Belize in 2021, one of which made “Good Morning America” this morning, not necessarily for the best of reasons (a shot senior policeman and possible involvement with rich Brits).

        https://news.sky.com/story/jasmine-hartin-daughter-in-law-of-tory-grandee-lord-ashcroft-taken-to-prison-after-policeman-shot-dead-in-belize-12322817

  8. Is United physically changing First Class seating by removing seats, or will those empty seats still remain? If so, will they be available for non-rev or upgrade passengers?

    1. Narita – No, as mentioned this is just how it’s being filed. They are likely to change it to match actual aircraft capacity when it gets closer.

  9. Cranky, I am begging you. The trolling is back. Please do whatever you did over the past couple of months. If it is going to be like this, I will just have to stop reading the comments. You have one person trying run your Web site for you from the comments section, and it just makes it miserable for everyone. Please, please, please … please make it stop.

      1. Cranky, just my two cents: I truly admire your effort to make sure everyone can have a voice on this page. I truly do. But one bad apple can ruin the whole bunch, and that is what happens here. Most of us have learned to ignore certain commenters, but they still manage to lure someone into a pointless conversation and then hijack the comment section … all with the same-old Delta amazing, Southwest pretty good, United bad, American bad, let me distract you with a pointless comment about something that is germane neither to the original article or anyone else’s comments, then I’ll skew some financial metric in a way that defies logic in order to make it look like Delta’s c-suite is full of prophets.

        You do really good work, Cranky. Your site is a daily visit for me, and will continue to be. And I usually find the comments interesting (even if I don’t participate as often as I should). I have enjoyed my visits here much more over the past two months. I just can’t enjoy reading your comment sections if I have to steer around the nonsense every. single. time. I hope you’ll keep things under control. Don’t let one bad apple ruin a comment section that is usually informative and, generally speaking, civil.

        All my best.

        1. In the first two articles I replied to, note who 1. called people names 2. threw in topics and airlines which weren’t part of the discussion and 3. incessantly posted “facts” which were incorrect and CF had to step in.

          CF has an approach to covering the airline industry which is unmatched on the internet.
          I hope he gets and keeps control as well but sadly this site too often looks more like the gate areas at MIA.

        2. Thanks, Jim. It’s a fine line to walk, but I understand everyone’s concerns, and I will be paying close attention.

  10. Qantas cuts to mid December were announced a few weeks ago (12/5) but appear to have taken a while to reach Cirium. Domestically in Aus they are flying at nearly full network capacity measured by seats but with some changes in which routes (increase in leisure routes, decrease in business routes).

  11. I’m reading from DL pilots that this coming weekend will be an operational mess with too many open trips and not enough people picking them up. I wouldn’t be surprised if DL continues to need to cancel throughout summer in order to be able to run the schedule they have. AA might have same issue too. All the airlines that displaced too many pilots or had too many early outs are having trouble re-equaling their pilots now. It’s going to last for a while and affect their ability to hire new pilots. You can only train and hire so many pilots at a time. In the mean time, the ULCCs and B6 are hiring like mad. Make no mistake, there will be a permanent change in market share. that may or may not be a problem. I think the bigger problem would be the likely scenario where domestic/Caribbean leisure permanently becomes a much larger fraction of overall travel than pre-COVID.

    1. The June schedule represents a huge jump in both flights flown and seats for a lot of DL stations, including mine. Anecdotally, traffic is up and the terminal I work at is packed. It’s a nice (and frankly exciting) change.

      AA was hamstrung from adding some flights/mainline equipment they wanted to here due to gate constraints. I hope any hurdles The Widget faces aren’t self-inflicted.

    2. If you read the same pilot chat sites I do, even if DL doesn’t get enough “volunteers for overtime” they will just reroute the heck out of the pilots that are flying to get thru the weekend.
      DL did manage to get thru the holiday weekend with impressive operational performance based on flight tracking sites.

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