Summer continues to inch forward in Airlineville with fits and starts of activity punctuated by moments of cautious panic about the reports of the Delta variant’s spread around town. Will this cause residents to crawl back inside? So far, it doesn’t seem that way, but you know everyone is glued to their TV sets.
The Cirium data this week shows that both Ms Blue and the Eskimo have set their plans through year-end. Meanwhile, the Eagle spent a lot of time thinking about the desert this winter, and how it wants to do thinks differently than it has in the past.
The Heart cut back plans in October, but could this be the last time the Heart needs to make a big cut? We shall see.
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Air Canada Cuts Long Haul In Winter
Canada may be opening, but Air Canada is cutting long-haul. Auckland and Sydney are gone through the winter season (until the end of March). Same goes for Toronto – Lima and Mumbai as well as Montreal – Shanghai. Athens won’t fly during December or January. Montreal – Tokyo/Narita; Toronto – Beijing, Lima, Shanghai/Pudong, and Tokyo/Haneda; and Vancouver – Beijing and Shanghai/Pudong all won’t operate through year-end.
In slightly better news if you live in Quebec… Quebec City gets new flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
Alaska Takes December Down
Alaska has taken December seat miles down 19.1 percent. This puts it down 3 percent vs 2019. Other than that, there wasn’t much going on, but Alaska did remove Paine Field – Tucson during the summer.
Allegiant Does Some Late Cuts
Allegiant took down flights for the first two weeks of August with up to 20 flights being canceled on peak days. In the second half of August, it has a much lower schedule, and that wasn’t impacted. There didn’t seem to be a clear pattern to these cuts other than Bellingham and Cincinnati taking a hit. It could be a cut for operational reasons.
American Reworks Phoenix
American has phixed up Phoenix this off-season. It is adding a daily flight to Albuquerque, Bakersfield, Boise, Columbus, Denver, El Paso, Flagstaff, Fresno, Las Vegas (+2x), Los Angeles (+3x), Minneapolis/St Paul, Monterey, Ontario, Palm Springs, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Tucson (+2x), and Yuma (+2x). Meanwhile, it is cutting a daily flight to Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Chicago/O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth (-2x), Grand Junction, Kahului, Līhuʻe, Madison, Memphis, New York/JFK, Philadelphia (-2x), Santa Fe, and Sioux Falls.
Delta Doesn’t Do Much
Remember how Delta said it would stop doing as many schedule changes to help keep phone volumes down? Well, it didn’t do much this week at all. There were a few minor changes, but hopefully we’ll see the airline do less and less now since it still can’t fix its phone problem.
Frontier Grows Atlanta, DFW, and Vegas
Frontier announced this week another round of growth. The first half was loaded in Cirium this week. New markets from Atlanta are Baltimore, Cancun, Chicago/O’Hare, Detroit, Houston/Intercontinental, Montego Bay, New Orleans, St Louis, and West Palm Beach. From Dallas/Fort Worth it’s Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tampa. Las Vegas gets Des Moines, Harlingen, Minneapolis/St Paul, New Orleans, and Sioux Falls.
Hawaiian Brings Interisland Down in Oct
Hawaiian has adjusted its schedule to reduce interisland flights out into October now. Cuts were a big heavier from Honolulu to the Big Island than elsewhere, but no routes were eliminated. It’s just a continuation of previous interisland trends.
JetBlue Brings November and December Down
JetBlue took November down 19.7 percent and December down 20.6 percent. That puts them at flat and +1 percent respectively versus 2019 and appears to be a flyable schedule for the airline through year-end.
Southwest Adjusts October Down
After making September realistic, Southwest has now brought October down 5.8 percent to make it a flyable schedule as well. This was the last of the old schedule, and I’ll be curious if November and beyond needs to be brought down at all. It could be more minor changes from here on out.
Spirit Adds a Few
Spirit filed a few new routes, mostly to the new XPL airport outside Tegucigalpa. It will fly there from Fort Lauderdale, Houston/Intercontinental, and Miami. It will also add intra-Florida flying from Pensacola to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
United Swaps Newark for Chicago
United has increased a few routes from Chicago in its September schedule. They’re mostly east-west, more business-y route while some leisure routes from Newark were cut back.
Other Randomness
- Alitalia has extended its suspension of Boston – Rome and Milan – New York through the summer schedule. That’s after the new ITA takes over for the old Alitalia, but somehow it’s still in the eventual plan, someday.
- China Airlines has suspended JFK – Taipei and kept SF – Taipei as a weekly flight through the summer schedule.
- China Eastern extended its pandemic schedule through October with just two weekly flights from JFK to Shanghai/Pudong.
- Contour is bringing back some previously planned flights starting in mid-October. Look for Indianapolis – Milwaukee, Nashville, and Pittsburgh along with Milwaukee – Pittsburgh to re-enter the schedule.
- JAL has canceled its US beach flying — Guam to Narita and Honolulu to Osaka and Nagoya — to the end of October. The lone survivor: Honolulu still gets a weekly flight to Narita.
- Jin Air has left Guam – Seoul/Incheon through end of schedule. I feel like they’ve done this before. I can’t remember, but I don’t really trust it.
- Korean has implemented a big downgauge through the entire winter season. The A380 will not be flying to the US. Honolulu sees 747-8s substituted with A330s on several occasions. And some 777 routes are put on 787-9s instead.
- Sun Country has extended its schedule through Memorial Day. I didn’t see anything particularly notable.
- WestJet brought September down 26.1 percent which puts it down 40 percent vs 2019. I guess we’ll call that accurate? It’s hard to know with the Canadians just opening things up now.
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, here’s what subscribers to Cranky Network Weekly are reading this week:
- American Reorients in Phoenix
- United Makes a Slight Shift Away From Leisure
- Avelo Moves to a Peaked Schedule
- Air Canada Revises Winter Long-Haul Down
- Southwest Makes a Seasonal Shift in October
