It was a game of inches in Airlineville this week. We didn’t see the massive cuts we get most weeks, but the residents were tinkering according to the data they sent to Cirium.
The Eskimo made a huge life decision when he decided to leave one of the biggest corporate hangouts in the world. We’ll see what this really means for his future. Further, the Widget did some cutting back of New York plans this week.
Meanwhile, the Globe seems to be getting closer to retiring some of those old clunkers that have been sitting in the garage for awhile.
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Alaska Leaves The Big Route
After shrinking on transcon, Alaska has done it. October 6 is the last day of service between Los Angeles and New York/JFK. All flights have been canceled after that, but Alaska tells me it is going to take Newark up to 4x daily. Alaska says it has 12x daily JFK slots and will add flying to what it calls its “core West Coast markets” of Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego. Los Angeles is NOT on that list and neither is San Jose for that matter.
Alaska will also fly Anchorage – Barrow through the holiday season now. Some short hauls see smaller gauge out of Seattle, and Canada gets a haircut all the way out into November.
Allegiant Extends Again
It wasn’t too long ago that Allegiant extended its schedule through January 4. Now it has extended again, this time through February 15. January capacity now shows up 9 percent vs 2019.
American Stays Quiet
It was a quiet week for American. It did fix its Austin – Cincinnati mistake last week, restoring most service on its second daily flight in September. It also added back some flights on Labor Day, apparently realizing it cut just a bit too far. It has also given up on China through August now. I’m sure that will be extended again… and again… and again.
In July, American cut frequency on Miami – Quito along with Philly – Orlando and Las Vegas. I’m told that is due to delays in receiving 787s from the factory. And lastly, how about some rare good news for Canada? Toronto will get Philly service through Labor Day now, and Chicago will get a second daily flight in August.
Delta Takes LaGuardia Down
Delta brought September down nearly 10 percent and October 8 percent, but what happened beyond is more interesting. The airline took a big cut at LaGuardia into next year. It looks like its future numbers are similar to 2019’s, so I don’t know why it had more flights scheduled this time around.
It was more than just LaGuardia seeing cuts. Alaska was brought down a lot through the winter with a frequency being cut from Anchorage – Minneapolis/St Paul and Seattle along with Fairbanks – Seattle. Neither Fairbanks – Minneapolis/St Paul nor Salt Lake will operate. And it looks like Los Angeles – Palm Springs along with New York/LaGuardia – Lexington are gone for good.
Was there any growth? Sure, Atlanta – Vail is back in the schedule as is LaGuardia – Sarasota. Minneapolis got a boost to Denver, and LaGuardia will have Key West back for the holidays.
Southwest Tweaks Its Shoulder
Southwest opted to take this week to do some pruning in September and October. A whole slew of weekend-only routes will not operate, most of those touching Florida. Southwest has also continued the cancellation of Baltimore – LaGuardia along with Washington/National – Columbus and Kansas City through October. In fact, Washington/National was brought down a lot through October on several routes. On the other hand, Southwest did add a lot of new flights in August — 2 percent more capacity — as it does its normal tweaks.
Spirit Builds Milwaukee
Spirit launched Milwaukee service last week, and as it’s wont to do, it announced more flights the day it started. It will now add Cancun, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Phoenix, and Tampa.
United Grows the Other Half of Winter
It already bulked up on mountain/ski destinations for winter, and now it’s doing the same in warm weather spots. Florida, Las Vegas, and Phoenix all get a bunch of new frequencies on existing routes. Cleveland – Tampa will also return. For Hawaiʻi, however, it’s a mixed bag. The airline is pulling all scheduled domestic-configured 777s from mainland-Hawaiʻi. You’ll remember that those are the airplanes with the problematic Pratt & Whitney engines. The capacity is spread around now to other fleets, including the 777-300ER.
United also filed a whole bunch of football flights. Without posting the specific dates, you can probably figure out when these are operating: Austin – Northwest Arkansas, Birmingham – State College (PA), Boston – Greenville/Spartanburg, Boston – Tampa, Columbus – Eugene, Detroit – Madison, Newark – Knoxville, Green Bay – New Orleans and San Francisco, Lansing to Lincoln, and Pittsburgh – Knoxville.
Lastly, United is pulling the plug on Santa Maria (California).
Other Randomness
- Aeroflot will bring back 1x weekly flight to Moscow from Washington/Dulles starting in July.
- Aeromexico apparently got a little too aggressive at building up Houston – Mexico City. It has cut one frequency going forward.
- Air Canada continues to whack at August, extending suspensions in Calgary – London; Halifax – Sydney (Nova Scotia); Montreal – Bogota, Lyon (which is gone until the holidays), and Toronto/City; and Vancouver – Puerto Vallarta. On the flip side, some leisure markets will return in August, including Calgary – Phoenix; Toronto – Fort Myers, Las Vegas; and Vancouver – San Diego.
- Air France’s Miami hublet lives! Guadeloupe service will return in July.
- Alitalia isn’t feeling good about Boston – Rome and JFK – Milan even though Italy is now open again. Those flights won’t operate in August.
- Cape Air was going to fly daily from JFK to Nantucket this summer, but now it has pulled it down to only a couple flights each month in July and August.
- Condor will not fly to Frankfurt from Anchorage or Baltimore this summer.
- Emirates was going to fly a 777-300ER from Dubai to Dallas/Fort Worth this winter. Now it has downgauged that to a 777-200LR.
- La Compagnie is pruning its Newark – Paris frequencies again, down to 5x weekly through the summer.
- Neos has filed its winter schedule between New York/JFK and Milan/Malpensa with 2x weekly service.
- WestJet took down European frequency through September in Calgary – London and Paris, Toronto – London, and Vancouver – London. It’s also ending Prince George – Abbotsford but will add a long-haul from Calgary to Charlottetown (PEI).
That’s all for next week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines. And if you can’t wait, here’s this week’s Cranky Network Weekly trends available for subscribers:
- Alaska Abandons a Key Corporate Market
- United Keeps Its Domestic 777s Grounded
- Delta Puts the Squeeze on LaGuardia
- United Pours Winter Capacity Into Florida
- Southwest Culls Weekend Flying This Fall
