Airlineville seems bored. The residents are all busy failing to execute the plans they made — this weekend it was the Eagle melting down — so why even bother making new plans?
Ok, ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Cirium data did show some signs of life this week, but it was still pretty quiet overall. The Maple Leaf decided he can’t visit China for awhile longer while the Eskimo has for some unknown reason decided he loves Ohio. Go figure.
The Widget has holidays on the brain, but it’s not the holidays you think. And the Globe hears London calling. All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Air Canada Whacks Long-Haul Again
Air Canada did some more long-haul work with major Asian cuts through winter. China won’t have flights to Canada through the full winter season now. Montréal – Tokyo/Narita also won’t operate. The only other big move is the cancellation of Toronto – Brussels. Instead, Air Canada will use a bigger airplane on Montréal – Brussels.
Oh, and get ready, Québécois. Québec City will get nonstops to Cancún and Fort Lauderdale… next summer.
Alaska Loves Ohio
It was announced last week, and the flight was filed over the weekend. Alaska will fly from Seattle to Cleveland. It’s also adding a second daily to Columbus and Cincinnati. That’s a lot of Ohio right there.
American Tinkers Down South
It was a quiet week for American, but it did have a handful of changes.
- Boston – Nassau won’t operate from January through April
- Charlotte – Guadalajara service is canceled (though DFW gets another flight this winter)
- Charlotte – St Croix goes from 1x daily to 1x weekly from January through April
- Chicago/O’Hare – Harlingen is going to operate 1x weekly this winter
- Dallas/Fort Worth – Merida will run 1x weekly through the winter
- Dallas/Fort Worth – San Luis Potosi gets a 3rd daily flight
- Miami – Anguilla, Bonaire, and Dominica go from 2x to 3x weekly
Delta Thinks About the Holidays
No, not those holidays. Delta has pulled down flying for three weekends in January and February. The Saturday and Sunday over Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Super Bowl Sunday, and Presidents Day saw cuts. But before that, Delta removed another 1.5 percent of capacity in December. It’s focused mostly on short-haul and a couple of transcons. Beyond that, there were a few moves of note.
- Cincinnati to both Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago/O’Hare remain suspended until June
- Minneapolis/St Paul – Tucson will operate this winter while Charleston (SC) will operate next summer
- New York/LaGuardia – Pensacola will operate this winter and spring
Flair Flexes Its Muscle in the US
Flair, the Canadian low-cost operator, will fly to Nashville from both Edmonton and Toronto starting in April. Denver – Toronto starts then as well, and so will SFO – Edmonton and Vancouver. Before then, Ottawa – Las Vegas won’t fly through the winter, but Las Vegas – Toronto while going from 3x to 2x weekly through the winter will now operate year-round. Meanwhile, a long-haul from Palm Springs to Toronto will fly through the winter.
Hawaiian Sets Its Winter Internationally… Mostly
Hawaiian appears content letting Japan ride a little longer. It has only extended its pandemic schedule through year-end there, but everywhere else, the cuts have come in. Auckland and Brisbane will not operate this winter. Sydney will operate but only 5x weekly this winter. Incheon will drop from 5x to 4x weekly through end of schedule. And Pago Pago, while not international, is going to stay at 1-2x monthly through winter. Domestically, there was one cut of note. Boston will drop from 5x to 4x weekly through end of schedule.
United Loads London
As announced, United has added more London back to the schedule. Boston will be 1x daily, Denver goes from 1x to 2x daily, Newark goes from 6x to 7x daily, San Francisco goes from 2x to 3x daily.
Chicago – Kona will return 1x weekly next summer, but there were several frequency cuts down into Mexico and Central America. Lastly, United has pulled service from four cities. Twin Falls service ends in December, Pierre and Watertown service ends in January, and Joplin service ends in March.
Other Randomness
- Aer Lingus has filed Dublin – Philly from May.
- Aha! will add Spokane to its route map 3x weekly from Reno in December.
- Air India was just kidding. Newark – Mumbai will now operate again starting in November.
- Azul is coming back to Campinas – Orlando early with service resuming in December instead of February.
- Cathay Pacific will keep its pandemic schedule running through January.
- Eastern will be back in Belo Horizonte next summer, or so it has filed as of now. It will be out of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, however, from December through March.
- Korean has cut its winter schedules across the board. All routes operate except for Las Vegas which won’t fly through the winter at all.
- Porter appears to have reversed itself and filed its flights with only 74 seats instead of 78. I wonder if this might be a mistake since the increase plan was relatively recent.
- Qantas is getting ready to roar. Starting in March, its Sydney – LA flight will now operate 8x weekly instead of 1x daily.
- Southwest will go from 1x weekly back to daily on Tampa – Havana from December. Meanwhile, Norfolk – San Diego will stay out of the schedule through April.
- WestJet won’t fly from Regina or Saskatoon to Las Vegas or Orlando this winter.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines.
21 comments on “Schedules Show a Few International Sparks, but Cuts Still Dominate”
AS will now have 5x from SEA to CLE/CVG/CMH. Kind of mind boggling.
As a native of Cleveland, I was jealous of the Eskimo dating CMH and CVG but not us, glad CLE finally got in the action! Cleveland rocks!
But no I don’t understand 2x to CMH and CVG either.
Given the way that the Seahawks are doing this season, perhaps Alaska wants to offer the residents of NW Washington an opportunity to see some decent football games in person next fall. ;-)
/Then again, the running joke in Ohio is that the state only has one professional sports team, and it is “THE” Ohio State University.
(I say this in good fun, not to pick on either state, as I’m not a big football fan and don’t have roots in either state.)
Did a little digging…
SEA was the top destination from CLE without a nonstop flight, averaged 160 pxs per day in 2019.
Granted AS won’t get all 160 due to (generally misguided) airline loyalties but they should get plenty. Plus how many daily pxs are flying the other direction? Plus it will be the only nonstop. Hopefully these add up to successful service.
There are other issues like timing which affect which airline you fly. Like, for me, I’ll take a connection before a red eye nonstop. Or if you have to work a full spray and the nonstop leaves in the morning, you’ll need to take a later connecting flight.
Thanks, makes sense.
I’m not in the airline industry, but one wonders how many routes similar to CLE-SEA may exist, in terms of connecting mid-sized metro areas with other (mid/large-sized) metro areas via new nonstop service.
I think a lot of these types of routes still haven’t been backfilled in former hub cities. United flew this route until 2014 as part of the old CO hub in CLE.
Perhaps AS sees greens with Bluejackets, Browns & Bangles.
…Don’t forget the Buckeyes (and now the Bearcats), either.
If AA can’t make Boston – Nassau work during the winter and spring break, they might as well just shut it down.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this cut was matched by a increase on JetBlue with the NEA.
What is the extra day that the MIA – DOM route received? I’m only aware of the Wednesday and Saturday frequencies.
Looks like Mondays
Having waited 20 months to be able to travel to the US again, whist there is plenty of availability, the price of tickets is obscene – never paid such high prices for transatlantic economy fares.
I’ve noticed lots of capacity cuts too – one example is VS/DL cut JFK-LHR flights by 3-4 per day.
I booked J for ~$2400 roundtrip in December, JFK – LHR and LHR – LAX. The same ticket is now $9K. Crazy.
Rank profiteering, or something else?
I don’t know either but there certainly isn’t a better argument for a Mint suite, I mean seat, on JetBlue.
I have a suspicion that this is something to do with slots? Assuming that the “use it or lose it” rules will return next summer, I wonder if airlines are only planning to use the slots they own and where possible handing back ones they’ve hired to their original owners?
But now that we’re seeing the likes of UA adding capacity I think that the prices will hold for a bit and then someone will crack and they’ll all cut prices back to pre-pandemic levels… maybe around Black Friday?
If it makes you feel any better, the prices for domestic US travel over the holidays are the same, way up, even (it would seem) compared to pre-COVID fares. Supply/demand is certainly driving most of that, but the rising price of jet fuel isn’t helping either. As an anecdotal example, my usual holiday routes are at least 2x the pre-COVID holiday fares.
UAL 6-7x daily from EWR to LHR? Do you mean weekly?
No, that’s daily.