Capacity Cuts Overshadow Growth

The residents of Airlineville are feeling a lot like the residents of Long Island this week. Storm clouds continue to gather. Will it be a direct hit or will it skirt the town? Either way, there will be an impact.

As Cirium data shows, Pualani and the Animal are boarding up windows for the near term, even as the latter makes more bold long term plans. Meanwhile, the Widget, the Globe, and even the Queen have taken some precautions for a longer and colder winter than they had hoped to see.

It was quiet for most of the residents this week as they take a wait and see approach, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to talk about.

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

Allegiant Extends and Adds

Allegiant had a very busy week. It extended its schedule from February 15 to May 17, so spring break is now available. It also finally got around to filing its schedule in 22 new markets. Those are listed in this press release.

British Airways Pulls Back This Winter

British Airways will cut frequencies this winter in Baltimore, Houston, Nashville, New Orleans, and Seattle. It will also reduce aircraft size on many other routes. Notably, the A350-1000 is out for the winter in the US while the 787 will gain more flying. And the A380 is still scheduled 1x daily to LA and San Francisco, though the Miami and Washington/Dulles flights aren’t on that aircraft any longer.

Delta Takes On the Holidays, Trims Europe

Last week, Delta did a bunch of cutting into next year, but it left out the holidays. This week, it filed its holiday cuts from December 18 – January 4. The holiday schedules are below the pre- and post-holiday schedule levels, so something is going to change.

On long-haul, Delta make a whole bunch of cuts. Detroit – Frankfurt is not flying into December. Atlanta – Madrid, Minneapolis/St Paul – London/Heathrow, New York/JFK – Athens + Brussels, and Portland (OR) – Amsterdam won’t operate through the winter. New York/JFK – Lisbon, Tel Aviv, and Zurich are all seeing reduced frequencies this winter as well. Meanwhile, heading south, Atlanta – Rio and New York/JFK – Sao Paulo are gone into February while Boston – Providenciales is gone for the winter.

Frontier Cuts in Short Term, Then Shifts Denver for Orlando

Frontier is bringing down capacity again in the near term with 5 percent of seats being cut between August 26 and then end of October.

In the longer run, Frontier has poured a bunch of capacity into Orlando this winter, at the expense of Denver. Orlando will get increased frequency to Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Islip, Las Vegas, Philly, and Trenton. Some of this flying will be funded by winter suspensions of Denver – Billings, Bismarck, Boise, Bozeman, Branson, Jackson Hole, Missoula, and Palm Springs along with Orlando – Jackson (MS) and Philly – Charleston.

United Broadly Cuts Latin/Caribbean, Changes JFK

United took some scissors to its Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America schedule this week. All markets saw cuts except for Denver which grew. Newark and Washington/Dulles mostly lost in the Caribbean (though it gains San Jose, CR service). Houston and San Francisco mostly lose in Mexico while Los Angeles loses in Mexico and Central America. Big destinations that lose capacity are San Juan, Grand Cayman, Monterrey, and Belize.

The airline’s fledgling JFK service is seeing changes. Starting October 5, the aircraft will switch from a 767-300 to a 757-200. Is this an upgauge or a downgauge? Well, it’s a little of both. Remarkably, this increases capacity. The 767 has 167 seats (46 business, 22 premium economy, 43 Economy Plus, and 56 in coach). The 757 has 169 seats (16 business, 45 Economy Plus, and 108 in coach). It’s just a big drop in premium capacity.

In other news, San Francisco – Bangalore has been delayed until December. And some secondary Canada markets will be canceled into February or March.

Other Randomness

• Air Canada won’t fly to Baltimore from Montreal or Toronto or to Raleigh/Durham from Montreal through year-end. It also won’t fly Pittsburgh to Montreal through November. Panama City – Toronto won’t operate this winter, and next summer, Air Canada is looking to fly to Milan from Montreal instead of Toronto.
• Alaska suspended Portland (OR) to Newark, New York/JFK, Puerto Vallarta, and Washington/National for most of the month of October.
• American did nothing this week except for updating seating capacity on some A321 flights through November. As the airline continues to retrofit its fleet, it keeps adding capacity to A321s in the schedule.
• Azul will not fly from Campinas to Orlando until the holidays.
• Cape Air will fly from Hyannis to Martha’s Vineyard through the winter.
• China Airlines has extended its pandemic schedule through the end of the year while China Southern has taken it down all the way through March.
• Contour will fly Nashville to Greenville/Spartanburg from November.
• Hawaiian took out another 3 percent of interisland seats for the last nine days of August.
• SATA will fly from JFK to Madeira 1x weekly starting in November.
• Southern Air Express is ending Destin – Tampa early, pulling all remaining flights for September through November. It also won’t fly to Tampa from West Palm Beach through the winter.
• WestJet will operate Calgary – San Francisco through the winter. It will also move 3 of its 6 weekly Vancouver – Orange County flights over to Calgary instead.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skes of air Lines. If you need more network action, you can always subscribe to Cranky Network Weekly where this week we look at:

• Delta’s Holiday Schedule Takes a Dip
• Frontier Makes Orlando Number One
• British Airways Adjusts Winter Capacity Down
• United’s Latin/Caribbean Downshift
• Avelo Tackles Big Markets From New Haven