Will Airlineville ever return to normal? Once again this week, the residents pulled back on their plans, but there was some hope that maybe next year will be different… or not.
Cirium data shows that the Widget is going to bring some foreign friends to Boston next summer. And both the Heart and the Taxi started making spring break plans.
How many of these plans will hold? Only time will tell. All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Alaska Pulls Down Into 2022
Alaska took January capacity down nearly 15 percent, bleeding into February which came down a little over 9 percent. A whole host of markets lost 1 to 2 daily flights during that period, as compared to the placeholder that was filed. Buried in there, however, were a few gainers, mostly in Mexico. Cancun – LA and Seattle along with Cabo – San Jose each get an extra 1x per week. Guadalajara – LA gets 1x more per day while Las Vegas – LA and Puerto Vallarta – Seattle get an extra 5x per week. San Diego – Santa Rosa and Cabo – Seattle each get an extra 4x per week. Paine Field – Portland will now return in January while Palm Springs – Seattle grows by 11x per week.
American Works on December
American brought December capacity down another 5.6 percent. It was really about double that amount for the first half of the month since it was concentrated between December 1 and 15. It also removed all China schedules through November, and when it does return, it is moving its DFW – Beijing flight back to Beijing/Capital from Beijing/Daxing.
Beyond that, American upgauged a couple routes. Miami – Barcelona goes from a 787-8 to a 777-200. A 787-8 flight from Miami to Buenos Aires will go to a 777-300ER. It looks like DFW – Kona hasn’t done well since it’s gone from the schedule after the holidays. Lastly, American’s big slot squatting effort from JFK to Baltimore has been deflated a bit. One daily flight will move to Washington/National instead.
Delta Brings Up Boston
Delta didn’t do much this week, but it did bring back some international flights from Boston next summer. Rome and Lisbon both start in May while Edinburgh was filed for July.
Frontier Cancels Routes Next Year
Frontier brought January through April down by 3 to 5 percent this week. The cuts were primarily markets being removed for all or part of that time period. Canceled/suspended markets are Chicago/O’Hare – Cozumel, Pensacola, Sarasota; Cincinnati – New Orleans, Sarasota; Cleveland – Sarasota; Denver – Cozumel, Tucson, Wichita; Fort Myers – Minneapolis/St Paul, Providence; Las Vegas – Bloomington/Normal, Islip, Newark; Miami – Ontario, San Salvador, St Thomas, Trenton; Orlando – Austin, Oklahoma City; Tampa – Minneapolis/St Paul.
Southwest Extends Through Spring Break
Southwest extended its schedule from ending in early January to now ending in late April. The big news in the new schedule is the addition of several routes from Austin. The press release gives the details.
Spirit Goes Up and Down
Spirit made a whole bunch of moves this week. First, it brought down January and February by just over 14 percent. Cuts were spread broadly, and they were deeper on off-peak days. January and February now look more real than the mid-November through the holidays period, but none of them look final. Spirit also extended its schedule from early March to later in May, but that looks a lot like a placeholder.
United Cuts Pacific
United worked on extending its Pacific schedule cuts. China is now gone through year-end while Hong Kong is gone through November. It also brought down San Francisco – Atlanta, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh until February.
In better news, United is bringing back some test markets from this past summer. Newark – Dubrovnik and Chicago/O’Hare – Keflavik will both be back. And Washington/Dulles – Lagos is in the schedule from this November.
Other Randomness
- ANA has suspended Narita – Honolulu and JFK along with Haneda – Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and Washington/Dulles through year-end.
- Avianca has downgauged JFK – Bogota from a mix of 787s and A330s to A319s/A320s for the rest of the year.
- Azul has extended the suspension of Campinas – Orlando well into February.
- British Airways has extended pandemic cuts through November. Service will remain suspended to Baltimore, Nashville, New Orleans, and Newark.
- Caribbean Airways is bringing back JFK – Barbados and St Vincent in November. It will also leave Montego Bay and shift those flights over to Kingston.
- Condor has updated its summer schedule, and Frankfurt – San Juan is out.
- El Al won’t fly Tel Aviv – Boston and San Francisco through the winter. Chicago is gone through November.
- Emirates has upgauged New York/JFK – Milan and San Francisco – Dubai to an A380 through the winter.
- Finnair has filed its new schedules from Stockholm to Los Angeles and New York/JFK.
- Hawaiian is adding an extra 1x weekly to Orlando through the winter, a positive sign that market is working.
- JetBlue took out another 4.5 percent of capacity in November. Newark and LA were the focus cities that saw the biggest cuts.
- LOT is out of Warsaw – LA through the winter.
- Philippine will cut San Francisco – Manila from 2x to 1x daily.
- Singapore will not fly Singapore – Newark and Seattle as well as Hong Kong – San Francisco through year-end.
- TAP is out of Boston – Ponta Delgada.
That’s it for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of Air Lines.
