Some worried that this show as getting stale and there wasn’t enough action of late. Fear not, it is back with a vengeance. Cirium was working overtime to load all the dramatic twists and turns that unfolded in Airlineville this week.
Ms Blue shocked many by admitting that maybe she had her hands in too many cookie jars. Some just didn’t have enough cookies in them, so she… pulled them out. While this was happening, the Eagle perched on top of the Texas State Capitol and sunk in his talons, loudly whistling his intentions.
The Heart decided to end the suspense and decided how she’ll spend her winter. Would you believe that Syracuse is part of her plans?
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Alaska Adds Leisure Flights, Bumps Up Frequencies
Alaska had a relatively quiet week, but it did file the new leisure flights its announced this week. That means new flights are coming to Austin – Palm Springs, Portland – New Orleans and Tampa, and San Francisco – Cancun. A little more quietly, it increased frequencies in several key markets. All of these gained 1x daily additional flights unless noted: Seattle – Anchorage (2x daily), Boise, Phoenix, Portland, and Spokane.
On the other side, Alaska did some advance cutting of long-haul flights for October into November. This continues a trend where Alaska cuts long haul first. The markets that lose 1x daily are Seattle to Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia, Raleigh/Durham, and Washington/Dulles.
American Adds Austin and Tampa
American filed its schedules for its new Austin service announced last week. You can read that release for more details, but what we learned is that most of the new flying is on Embraer 175s, at least all the domestic flights but San Juan are. The rest are on 737-800s. But this wasn’t just about new destinations. American also added frequencies from Austin to Cabo San Lucas (+2x weekly), Dallas/Fort Worth (+2x daily), Miami (+2x daily), New Orleans (+1x daily), Orlando (+1x daily), and Tampa (+1x daily).
Beyond Austin, American did file new flights from Tampa to Los Angeles (1x daily), Nashville (2x daily), and Raleigh/Durham (2x daily). Also, New York/JFK to Delhi will go from 3x weekly to 1x daily.
Delta Flips Boston Around
Delta has decided to make big changes in Boston. Memphis and Newark will not operate at least through the winter. There are frequency changes in other markets including Atlanta (+2x daily), Bangor (new, +1x daily), Buffalo (-2x daily), Cincinnati (-1x daily), Cleveland (-1x daily), Detroit (-11x weekly), Fort Lauderdale (-2x daily), Jacksonville (+1x weekly), Kansas City (+1x daily), Las Vegas (+1x daily), Miami (+1x daily), Milwaukee (-5x weekly), Minneapolis/St Paul (-1x daily), New Orleans (new, 1x daily), Norfolk (new, 1x daily), New York/JFK (-12x weekly), Orlando (-6x weekly), Philadelphia (-2x daily), Raleigh/Durham (-1x daily), Seattle (-1x daily), Tampa (-5x weekly), and West Palm Beach (new, 1x daily).
Outside of Boston, Delta took the opportunity to pull down August again. It’s now down 27 percent vs 2019.
Hawaiian Sets August
Hawaiian hasn’t needed to pull down mainland flying, but interisland remains behind. It pulled down that 717 flying for August, so this is likely a pretty set schedule now. It also upped Vegas – Kahului from 4x weekly to 1x daily. That looks like a minimal response to Southwest’s entry into the market.
JetBlue Slashes and Burns For the Long Run
Oh my did JetBlue have a big week. It made several long term cuts which decimated the Raleigh/Durham focus city and hurt Orlando and the West Coast as well. A few routes are going away for the winter, including Boston – Baltimore, Bermuda, and Portland (OR) along with Newark – Seattle.
Far more appear gone for good, it seems: Boston – Burbank, San Jose; Fort Lauderdale – Pittsburgh; Fort Myers – Cleveland, Philly; Los Angeles – Richmond, Seattle; Orlando – Atlanta, Austin, Bogota, Philadelphia, San Francisco; Raleigh/Durham – Austin, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Montego Bay, Orlando, San Francisco, Tampa; Richmond – Las Vegas; San Francisco – Austin; Tampa – Philly, Washington/National; West Palm Beach – Chicago, Philly, Pittsburgh.
Southwest Extends
Southwest extended its schedule through the winter holiday. I won’t get into too many details, because you can see the new and restarted routes here. Southwest also changed frequencies in Sept/Oct to try and get closer to reality, but it still looks a bit on the high side, especially in September.
United Does a Lot of Stuff
It’s not a descriptive title… or is it? United made a whole bunch of schedule changes through August, but they didn’t seem all that important. Yes, it pulled down long-haul flying that month as it gave up on demand returning in some markets by then. But it was otherwise a lot of tweaking except for a few market additions.
United, like American, will launch Los Angeles to Tampa. And just for good measure it’s going to throw in service to Fort Myers from both LA and San Francisco. Lastly, Houston – Mazatlan will come back in December.
Other Randomness
- Air Asia X looks to be pulling out of Honolulu as it restructures.
- Air Canada is giving up on Montreal – Barcelona and Toronto through the end of the year. Meanwhile, Delhi flights are gone through July.
- Cabo Verde Airlines now seems to be out of Boston and Washington/Dulles – Sal.
- Cape Air has filed flights from San Juan to Virgin Gorda from December.
- Caribbean Airlines won’t fly Fort Lauderdale – Kingston through the winter.
- Condor has cut capacity from Frankfurt to Anchorage and Baltimore for the summer, and it looks like it’s giving up on Fairbanks this year.
- Jeju Air is going to take a swing at Seoul/Incheon to Guam starting in October. At least, that’s its plan for now.
- Qatar is actually cutting something. Atlanta and Boston will each drop from 1x daily to 4x weekly.
- Southern Air Express must have not done well with its Destin – Tampa – West Palm Beach flight this summer, because those are now gone until September.
- Sun Country will fly Las Vegas – Williston along with Minneapolis/St Paul – Gulfport/Biloxi and New Orleans this fall.
- Volaris won’t fly Puerto Vallarta – Chicago/O’Hare and Phoenix plus Dallas/Fort Worth – Durango and Zacatecas. It also had various frequency changes, including some increases, in other markets.
- Volaris Costa Rica won’t fly New York/JFK to San Salvador through September. It will also cut frequency from Los Angeles and Washington/Dulles to San Salvador.
- WestJet added frequencies to existing US, Mexico, and Caribbean leisure markets for the winter. With any luck, Canada will allow people to actually travel to and from those places by then.
That’s it for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines. And if you can’t wait, subscribe to Cranky Network Weekly for this week’s trends:
- American’s Austin Invasion Continues
- JetBlue Gives Up On Raleigh/Durham and More
- Delta Reworks Its Boston Plans
- Southwest’s Plan for Dealing With Breeze
- A Southwest Winter of Uneven Growth Begins
