Can you feel the heat? The residents of Airlineville are starting to get a little testy this week according to the plans they gave to Cirium. We have the Eagle and the Taxi making moves down on South Beach. Meanwhile, the two sun-worshippers out of Vegas and Minneapolis/St Paul are sparring in the Twin Cities.
The Eskimo and the Widget are trying to beat the heat by dreaming of winter and the Maple Leaf, well, he’s just dreaming of a time he can come visit his friends again.
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Air Canada Sets a Course Toward Recovery
It’s hard to get too excited, but the Canadian border opening could be coming soon, and Air Canada is setting a course for recovery. It has made cuts to September and October which show an incremental 10 point improvement vs 2019 for each of the next four months. We’ll see if that ends up being possible or not.
Alaska Makes a Late Cut
Alaska made some late cuts for July considering it’s.. already July. The airline’s biggest markets lost anywhere from 2 to 42 flights in the month. Why did this happen? It could be demand or it could be an operational issue. I’d bet on the latter.
Further out, Alaska filed some changes ot its winter schedule. Bozeman is in with flights to San Diego and San Francisco. Jackson Hole will get San Francisco, but it will not have a San Jose flight as previously planned. San Jose also loses Redmond/Bend. Missoula has it even worse. It will lose Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose for good.
There are shorter term cuts to markets that won’t operate through the end of the year. Paine Field continues to suffer. It won’t have Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, or San Jose. Portland (OR) also loses with flights cut to Dallas/Love, Eugene, Omaha, and Vancouver.
Allegiant’s New Flights
As announced, Allegiant filed 23 new routes this week, including its first flights into Amarillo, Melbourne (FL), Minneapolis/St Paul, and Washington/Dulles along with big Austin growth.
American Goes Big in Miami
American is not messing around in Miami. With all kinds of newcomers making waves, American is responding widely with a comprehensive growth plan. Here’s what happens.
- New routes to Albany, Burlington, Chetumal (Mexico), Madison, Salt Lake City, San Andres Island (Colombia), Syracuse, and Tulsa. (Chetumal, by the way, I had to look up. It’s on the border with Belize. Meanwhile San Andres Island may be Colombian, but it’s way closer to the coast of Nicaragua.)
- One additional daily frequency (unless noted) to Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Guatemala City, Jacksonville (+2), Nashville (+2), New Orleans, Orlando (+4), Raleigh/Durham, San Jose (CR), San Juan, San Pedro Sula, Santo Domingo (+2), and Tampa (+3).
- Flights will be upgauged to larger aircraft to Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis/St Paul, Pensacola, Pittsburgh, St Louis, San Antonio, and Tallahassee.
In non-Miami news, American has officially given up on flying to New Zealand this winter. All flights have been pulled to both Auckland and Christchurch.
There are a couple new adds including Philly – Kingston and Washington/National – Tulsa. Lastly, LaGuardia gets more flights to Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Indianapolis.
Delta Has No Single Cabin Aircraft in New York
This week, Delta pulled the last of its single cabin regional jets from JFK. It also removed several A319s. Both will be replaced by CRJ-900s and Embraer 175s.
Delta further updated winter schedules with Atlanta – Aspen getting new flights while Jackson Hole goes as well. The latter is cut back in favor of Los Angeles and Seattle. Atlanta – Reno will disappear. Bozeman gets LA and Seattle while Steamboat Springs will connect to Minneapolis/St Paul. Sun Valley will get an LA flight.
Delta also took a bite out of some European routes this winter. Amsterdam – Detroit and Minneapolis/St Paul each lose a daily flight. Paris – Cincinnati goes from 1x daily to 3x weekly while Paris – Raleigh/Durham and Salt Lake each go from 1x daily to 4x weekly.
Frontier Files New Vegas Flying
Frontier added new flights from Las Vegas to Bloomington/Normal, Madison, Memphis, Northwest Arkansas, and Tucson.
Hawaiian Sets September
Hawaiian has pulled down interisland flying a bit in September in order to have a more flyable schedule as it has done with previous months.
Spirit’s Miami Flights are Loaded
The news was put out there awhile ago, but Spirit has now officially filed its Miami flights.
United Adds Manchester
United will start flying from Newark to Manchester (NH). You hear that, Spirit? United is coming for you.
The airline also gave a haircut in September and into early October. These routes won’t operate: Denver – Tokyo/Narita; Honolulu – Tokyo/Narita; Houston – Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo/Narita; Los Angeles – Melbourne and Tokyo/Haneda; Newark – Lima, Shanghai, and Tokyo/Haneda; San Francisco – Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo/Haneda; and finally, Washington/Dulles – Sao Paulo.
Other Randomness
- Breeze is upgauging New Orleans – Akron/Canton, Columbus, Louisville, and Richmond to the Embraer 195.
- British Airways has now officially given up on summer in light of the UK still not loosening restrictions. It has extended its pandemic schedule through August.
- Copa won’t fly to Denver, Las Vegas, and New Orleans through the fall. It will cut frequency to Boston, Chicago/O’Hare, and Los Angeles. It will add frequency to Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and New York/JFK. Miami incredibly goes from 6x daily to 9x daily.
- EVA is going to fly Taipei – Guam 1x weekly in July.
- Korean won’t fly to Honolulu in August and neither will Asiana, but Asiana also won’t fly there in September.
- Lufthansa won’t fly to Austin in August.
- Southern Airways Express has given up on plans to fly rich people from Bridgeport (CT) to New York City’s seaport for the rest of the summer.
- Sun Country filed flights from Minneapolis/St Paul to Asheville and West Palm Beach within hours of Allegiant announcing the same. Sun Country also moved up the start for Punta Gorda flights from December to October and doubled frequency.
- Swoop has filed its winter schedule from Canada. In the US, it will serve Las Vegas, Orlando/Sanford, Phoenix/Mesa, San Diego, and St Pete.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines. For those who want more, subscribe to Cranky Network Weekly. This week we feature:
- Spirit Enters Miami…
- …American Takes Miami Up a Notch
- Alaska Does a Late July Pulldown
- Sun Country and Allegiant Skirmish in MSP
- Air Canada Sets a Plan for Recovery
30 comments on “American and Spirit Grow Miami, Allegiant and Sun Country Spar”
“in light of the UK still not loosening restrictions” – on the contrary, the British public have just been left to fend for themselves, Cranky. 100k+ cases a day on the way, just in time for the removal of social distancing and masking requirements. Seems like perfect conditions to suggest people get on aircraft and fly around the world… Vaccinated people are spreading Delta variant to vaccinated people – look at the data from Singapore.
Vaccinated people are generally safe from the delta variant; at least those who got the types of vaccines available in the US. Does that mean that no vaccinated people will catch it: no. But it’s a numbers game and the odds of catching it are something like 1/100 of the odds of a non-vaccinated person getting it. Also, a vaccinated person is far less likely to be hospitalized if you do get it.
But, as much as that sounds like my opinion and criticism for your alarmist and inaccurate comment, here’s what the CDC is saying: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/560871-cdc-director-vaccinated-people-safe-from-delta-variant-do-not-need-to-wear
It’s not inaccurate or alarmist. And full disclosure: I am a biomedical research scientist, and am 12 months late in starting a new leadership role at a major US University – so like all the other flying fetishists on this site, I have just as much of a vested interest in being able to get on a plane.
I made no claim about disease severity of the delta variant, or of Sars-CoV2 in fully vaccinated people. You link to the CDC site, and yet the US has yet to have the delta variant overtake the other strains – but all indications are that you are on the same trajectory as the UK in terms of prevalence of delta variant. The facts are (and these are from the Office of National Statistics and Public Health England), that due to the delta variant, the UK is now seeing case rates rising above the levels seen at the height of the last major wave in the winter. Of course, a huge number of these cases are in the young (especially children) who have yet to be vaccinated – but not all. The Singapore data show that fully (Pfizer) vaccinated individuals are passing the virus to one another. In the UK, rates of hospitilization are also rising, but thankfully deaths are not – but the pressure on the health system when the hospitals are full means that other people die. But then, I guess, that’s a price worth paying because some people think that wearing a mask is an encroachment of their ‘freedom’?
The benefit that you have in the US is that the adults are now back in charge of the Government – that is not the case in the UK. All requirements for PPE and social distancing are to be lifted on July 19th, when the DAILY case rate is likely to be reaching close to 100k. So I do think there are several, very valid reasons, why the UK should neither lift its’ travel restrictions (pathetic, though they are), and more importantly, other countries should not lift theirs in relation to the UK. But you will be looking at further restrictions yourselves in the US when Delta variant becomes predominant.
The UK will be at a 100k daily case rate again? That’s shocking. Subject to change, of course, but US is around a 11-13k 7 day rolling average throughout June.
It is shocking, Bill – new 28k cases yesterday, growing at 38% a week. And consider we were below 1.5k a day in April, but Johnson refused to put India on the Red list as he was still intending to fly there for a post-Brexit trade deal meeting; the result was an estimated 30,000 imported cases of Delta from India. The newly infected may not be as ill as previously, they may not need the medical intervention that the earlier cases did – but the sheer numbers of infections that are likely to occur (2 million summer cases, 10 million people self-isolating) mean that the NHS will be overwhelmed. Again. And then the winter ailments will roll in. All of this was totally avoidable, but weak, feckless ‘leadership’, coupled with people demanding their right to not wear masks, and fly to Spain for their holidays, means we will be in this cycle for far longer than was necessary.
Wow I’m very sorry to hear that but appreciate the information from the other side. Considering a trip there in late November early December but this gives me pause.
The CDC advice is already being ignored, in favour of WHO advisories that fully vaccinated people should still wear masks indoors; take a look at the new outbreaks occurring in California, where they have had to reverse the ‘no masks inside for fully vaccinated’ policy. The vaccines will not do all the heavy lifting – continued PPE and social distancing (including curbs on travel) will be required for some time.
Brits have had ample opportunity to get a vaccine by now. When are we going to stop hiding in the closet?
Cranky there is one new seasonal non-stop route American announced and put on sale at some point in the past week that I haven’t scene in either this weeks or last weeks posts. That’s 2x weekly roundtrips on Fridays and Sundays from LGA to South Bend. These flights will operate for Notre Dame football game home weekends only (9/10, 9/12, 9/17, 9/19, 10/1, 10/3, 10/22, 10/24, 10/29, 10/31, 11/5, 11/7, 11/19, 11/21).
As a South Bend local I’m quite happy that it’s operating as a round-trip on both Friday and Sunday (not just one-way like how pre-COVID Delta’s LGA to South Bend special flights operated) and may fly it this fall to New York for a quick weekend visiting Family.
Is it Normal for Frontier to fly Las Vegas – Bloomington?
I see what you did there; well done.
HAH! Yes, it would be Normal.
Lol. Awesome.
Cranky, I need a decode guide for the airline nicknames, please!
Giles – That’s all fluff up top anyway. All the details are given by name below in the post and even in the title.
Eagle – American Globe – United Widget – Delta Heart – Southwest Eskimo – Alaska Ms Blue – JetBlue Pualani – Hawaiian Taxi – Spirit Maple Leaf – Air Canada
According to a large number of experts, critics, and pundits at the time, airline consolidation was supposed to wipe out virtually all competition. How has that scenario worked out?
Porter’s back too, supposedly for real (for real) this time.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/8002930/toronto-porter-airlines-reopening-covid-pandemic/amp/
Thank god. They’re a solid little airline with a strong product. I was starting to worry that they wouldn’t return.
The Racc is back!
(hopefully…)
I can not believe that CM’s running 9x daily between PTY and MIA. I realize they enjoy being the world’s largest long haul narrowbody airline but at some point, one would think a few wide bodies would make sense. I’ve flown the airline a number of times out of ORD and those recliners are brutal for 6 hours.
> those recliners are brutal for 6 hours
Did you ever look behind the curtain? There are people there, too. Most of them even manage to survive the trip ;)
Also, Copa is rolling out its Dreams Business Class which is a flat bed.
That and an extra legroom section in coach will be on all 737 MAX 9s. But you won’t find those on Miami yet since that’s only about 2.5 hours in the air, when a bed is hardly needed.
Any hope from AA flying from Washington/Dulles to MIA? They dropped the route several years ago and with MIA expansion I would hope they would bring it back.
It’s a welcome sign to see United coming back to MHT, but flights to EWR don’t have any bearing on what Spirit is doing from there. Spirit (to start) will have three daily flights split among four Florida cities. What MHT really needs is more east-west flying, and Spirit would be smart to add a spoke to MKE so we could connect to western cities like LAS, LAX, PHX and others. On the other hand, Spirit’s entrance might wake up Southwest from its MHT slumber. WN had non-stop flights to LAS, PHX, and DEN from MHT…all pulled once they set up. shop in Boston. But if WN is interested in keeping MHT in light of their competitive struggles in Boston, newly-returned routes like those mentioned above would be the way to do it.
Surprised that WN backed off so much. The MHTs and PVDs of the world were their bread and butter until they started dancing with the big boys.
And to what effect? Not sure about BOS. iAD and EWR were unmitigated disasters. DCA has worked out very well. Not sure about LGA but I don’t think they are much of a factor there at all. I think they were beaten back at PHL too. And still they couldn’t resist the sirens songs at IAH and ORD? Hmmmmmmm.
You are right about Southwest and the big cities. No one can say Boston has been a success for them, inasmuch as costs and competition are both much higher there than at MHT. But I’m just an armchair CEO so maybe I am over-amplifying the situation. As more airlines begin to position assets at MHT (and they will, over time), the less Southwest will matter to the market. I think next in at MHT will be Breeze, as their new planes start getting delivered.
In my mind MHT (and even PSM [Portsmouth], though it doesn’t have much in the way of flights) are almost located in “in-between” locations.
They are close enough to BOS that many/most of their travelers are used to having to schlep down to BOS (or, to a much lesser extent, get over to PWM in Maine). While the drive to BOS from north of I-495 sucks (especially now that traffic has been back to pre-COVID levels for weeks) and many of those who live in that area prefer to book away from BOS, people are used to doing that drive.
On the other hand, MHT and PSM are just far enough away from many of the Boston burbs (especially those inside I-495) that they aren’t very attractive or convenient for people who live a little closer to the city, and probably aren’t even included in searches by those people when looking for flights.
I’d like to say that I think there’s an opportunity for a reliable bus or shuttle service to get people up to MHT from the closer Boston burbs, but I believe there was a state-subsidized bus service in the past that was shut down.
I sense a willingness by airlines to return to MHT, especially after management there dropped the CEP (cost per enplaned passenger) to a point where Spirit said ‘yes.’ Spirit is just the first into MHT in this post-COVID airline world, I believe. Breeze is a strong probability, maybe Frontier as well. MHT is no further away from Boston than it was in the 1990s when UA had two and sometimes three daily 757s to ORD. I was on about a dozen of those, and they were always full. So the market is there, to be sure. And I think COVID is sending some folks OUT of cities and into more rural areas. The airlines are obviously seeing that if I do. Also, the competition at Logan means thinner margins there.
I think you’re severely overestimating MHT’s importance in airline’s networks. NK may be able to make it work on sub-daily Florida flying for the reasons you listed above, but as far as MKE? How would that make sense. I’m not checking Diio right now, but my assumption is there is less than 3 PDEW between those 2 markets and NK is a point-to-point carrier and they would not build for connections, especially in a minor outstation in MKE. For UA, MHT-EWR is a pure connection play. On a segment level, I’m confident that is a money-losing route, but if it is 80% connections, then it works well in UA’s market, and frankly, that is the story for all mainline carriers at MHT and other similar sized markets.
@Kilroy, I grew up exactly halfway between MHT and BOS, at the intersection of US-3 and I-495. When I fly to visit my parents, I price compare both airports, giving the slight edge to MHT due to much lower rental car prices. When WN started in MHT around 20 years ago, United frequently price matched. I’d have to connect since there were no non-stops from LAX, but the connection was worth saving money compared to flights and rental cars in BOS.
When WN started in BOS, United lowered their prices too. With BOS’ higher rental car prices and non-stop availability, I’d have to do some math to see which was the better option, factoring in flight prices, one-stop/non-stop, flight frequency, rental car prices, etc… I wound up usually flying into BOS over the last few years, and didn’t notice United’s lack of MHT flights until recently.