New Orleans Sees Schedules Slashed While Lighter Capacity Cutting Continues Elsewhere

It was another week filled with bad news in Airlineville. The residents just keep pulling back on their plans as the curve continues to flatten. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong curve that’s flattening — booking, not COVID deaths.

Within Airlineville itself, Cirium data shows that many airlines took a break from the busy week last week. But that doesn’t mean they were completely silent. The Eagle making Thanksgiving plans while the Widget even started thinking about next summer. It’s a bit early, but really, it’s never too early.

There was a great deal of news from Airlineville’s foreign friends this weekend. The Shamrock, the Hammer and Sickle, the Maharaja, the Queen, Sir Turtle, and many more called to cancel their plans.

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

Air Canada Continues to Trim

I figured last week was the end of Air Canada’s 2021 trimming efforts, but I was wrong. This week saw further cuts. It looks like Vancouver – Osaka is gone for good. The suspension of Montreal – Cairo has now gone into early May, a couple months later than originally planned. Also, Toronto – Indianapolis, Kansas City, and St Louis are now gone through next April.

American Goes Late Night

It’s a time-honored tradition from the US Airways days. Thanksgiving weekend 2021 has been bulked up with a late night bank of flying in Charlotte. Flights arrive in Charlotte from a variety of eastern cities before midnight and then leave to go back right after.

Separately, American cut flights this month to New Orleans from Charlotte and Dallas/Fort Worth thanks to Hurricane Ida’s impact.

Delta Goes Long in the Caribbean

Delta has pulled down capacity for next summer in the Caribbean. It looks like Detroit won’t have any flights down there at all, and other markets saw reductions from what was filed. In not-quite-Caribbean news, it looks like Los Angeles – Liberia will be a holiday-only flight now, the rest of the frequencies are canceled.

In something closer in, Delta took a whack at LaGuardia, pruning 3 percent of seats from the market in October.

Hawaiian Take October Down

Hawaiian cut October Asian flying down to September levels, the skeleton service that has only Tokyo and Incheon flying. More interesting is that in October, Hawaiian cut 14 percent of interisland seats. It will now be 13 percent below September on an average day.

LATAM Makes Big Plans for Next Summer

It can’t all be cuts, right? LATAM has made some additions to its US flying for next summer, bulking up nearly across the board. Changes are:

• JFK – Lima, Santiago, and Sao Paulo all go to 1x daily, up from 5x, 4x, and 3x weekly respectively.
• LAX – Lima goes from 5x weekly to 1x daily.
• Miami – Bogota is added to the schedule with 5x weekly and Punta Cana will fly 1x weekly. Lima jumps from 2x daily to 18x weekly, Santiago increases from 1x daily to 12x weekly, and Sao Paulo goes from 5x weekly to 2x daily.
• Orlando – Lima sees a rare cut from 1x daily to 4x weekly, but Orlando – Sao Paulo goes from 3x to 5x weekly.

Southwest Scales Back New Orleans

Southwest took down New Orleans this month after Hurricane Ida rolled through. Atlanta actually saw a slight increase, but every other market saw flights cut. Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Washington/National won’t operate at all for the month while New York/LaGuardia and San Antonio will have only 1 flight the whole month.

Spirit Cuts Again

Spirit pulled down flying from October 5 – November 16, averaging what would be between 8 and 9 percent on a monthly basis. The cuts are spread wide, but West Coast and Texas look to have been hit harder, especially short-haul markets.

United Works on November and December

United also joined the cutting party. The airline pulled roughly 3 percent of capacity in November and December. It’s about 20 flights a day pre-Thanksgiving, then a big Thanksgiving pull down on off-peak days, and finally about 120-150 flights a day after Thanksgiving through December 15. November cuts included a lot of domestic but also a fair number of Asia/Pacific routes that will see suspensions extended.

Meanwhile, United will add a trio of routes as announced earlier this week. Cleveland – Nassau, Denver – Roatan, and Chicago – Guatemala City will operate weekly. Oh, and in huge news, Fort Dodge will see its 12x weekly service from Chicago go down to 1x daily with the remainder now moving to Denver. Get excited.

Other Randomness

• Aer Lingus is out of the Shannon – Transatlantic market until next year. Same goes for LA and Miami to Dublin. Manchester flying is pushed to December.
• Aeroflot has removed Los Angeles and Miami from the schedule. Meanwhile, Moscow – JFK will drop from 2x daily to 2x weekly and Washington/Dulles remains at 1x weekly. That’s filed through the end of schedule.
• Air Europa is trimming back Madrid – JFK to not operate between mid-January and the end of March. Miami will be cut from 1x daily to 5x weekly.
• Air France won’t fly JFK – Paris/Orly through the winter.
• Air India cut frequencies to the US in September and October. The biggest loser is Newark – Mumbai which won’t operate until the end of October at the earliest.
• Alaska pulled another 1.7 percent of capacity from Dec with a focus on the pre-holiday period. It looks like it’s mostly intra-West flying but there was no particular focus on geography.
• ANA won’t fly Tokyo – San Jose (CA) through the winter.
• Avianca is growing San Pedro Sula – Miami (4x weekly -> 1x daily); San Salvador – Houston (4x weekly -> 1x daily), Los Angeles (18x weekly -> 3x daily), and San Francisco (10x weekly -> 2x daily).
• Breeze is ending service from New Orleans to Huntsville. Meanwhile, New Orleans – Northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa go from 4x weekly to 2x weekly. Tampa – Oklahoma City and Tulsa drop from 3x weekly to 2x weekly for good in the new year.
• British Airways made more September cuts as demand stays week. Suspended markets won’t return until October as least. But San Jose (CA)? That won’t come back until next summer.
• Cayman Airways is out of the Grand Cayman – JFK market. Miami – Grand Cayman drops to 4x weekly and Tampa to 2x weekly.
• Frontier continues to be bearish, cutting another 1.4 percent of September capacity.
• JetBlue extended its reduced London schedule through October, going from 1x daily to 4x weekly on JFK – Heathrow and Gatwick.
• TUI has moved its full schedule in Orlando from Sanford over to Melbourne. Flights will operate from Birmingham, Bristol, Doncaster/Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newcastle. London/Gatwick was going to be 1x weekly but will now be 2x weekly. Manchester was also going to be 1x weekly but will now be up to 4x weekly. Sanford service ends in November.
• Virgin Atlantic has continued its Manchester cuts. It won’t fly in September from the US, and LA from Manchester won’t operate in October either.
• WestJet cuts its unrealistic placeholder schedule down to size into December, so that should be a more accurate read now. It’s feeling hopeful about next summer, filing Toronto to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines.