That was quite a turn of events. The residents of Airlineville are ready to go. They want to travel all over the place, but, uh, well, they can’t find anyone to drive.
This week’s Cirium data shows the Globe seems to be having enough trouble with its kids that is has crossed a few cities off its bucket list. Maybe that’ll change in the future. Meanwhile, the Sun, the Taxi, the Heart, and Ms Blue all pulled back on their plans at some point. But Ms Blue, interestingly, is actually making new plans for the beginning of next year. What a novel concept.
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air Lines.
Alaska Plays With Gauge, Adds Miami
Alaska will go back into Miami starting in June. It will continue to serve Fort Lauderdale, so this flight will not only be complementary but will also feed partner American’s hub.
Alaska has also finally adjusted its winter schedules to have the right aircraft attached through March. What does that mean? Alaska previously had most of its 737 flying on the 737-800. Now it has shifted a great number of those flights over to 737-900s once it determined which routes needed more capacity.
In other news, Alaska will move one of its two JFK – Portland flights down to San Francisco. It will now have 5x daily from SFO.
Allegiant’s Surprise Cut
Allegiant doesn’t usually cut flights, at least not relatively close in. But this week, the airline pulled down December flying more than 6 percent. Several routes are gone for the month including such obvious winners as Nashville – Flint, Albuquerque – Austin, and Indianapolis – Tucson.
Allegiant also removed all Cleveland service, as previously announced. It will start Akron/Canton – Punta Gorda, Sarasota, Savannah, and St Pete in March.
American Delays New Routes Again, Pulls December
American has once again delayed its Seattle – Bangalore flight from starting in January to now starting at the end of March. Same goes for Dallas/Fort Worth – Tel Aviv. The airline has also cut about two-thirds of a point in December, the cuts are, we assume, to give a little more operational slack.
American has been planning to rapidly push Embraer 175s into LAX to replace CRJ-700s, but now it has moved some airplanes around. Albuquerque, Northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma City, Omaha, and Tulsa will now all see some shifting of flights between the aircraft over the next few months.
Lastly, some odds and ends. Charlotte and DFW – Traverse City won’t operate in the spring while Culiacan – Phoenix will fly through the summer.
Breeze Extends Its Schedule and Cuts
Breeze has now extended its schedule through May 2, 2022, and it has also ditched some routes. Huntsville – Charleston will not operate December through mid-February. Oklahoma City and Tulsa service to New Orleans and San Antonio will end on November 28. After that, the two Oklahoma cities will only be served 2x weekly from Tampa. The airline did add some more flying in existing markets, including its first Tuesday flight, a trip from Richmond to Tampa.
JetBlue Goes Up, Then Comes Down
I’m a little confused. JetBlue filed some January/February changes, but there wasn’t a negative sign in front of the number. So I think that means the airline is… adding flights? It’s actually almost entirely JFK, with the biggest increases in Bermuda, Burbank, Charleston (SC), Chicago/O’Hare, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Reno, San Jose, and Savannah.
It’s a decidedly different story in May and June when JetBlue pulled down 2.5 to 3.5 percent of capacity. This looks like an effort to pull out some of the placeholder flying that definitely won’t operate, but it’s not final yet.
Southwest Cuts Twice
Southwest also had changes during two different periods, but in this case, both were cuts. First, in January and February, Southwest pulled down a variety of frequencies between Hawaiʻi and the mainland. No routes disappear completely, but Kona – Sacramento and San Diego do take a brief break during January.
Then in March and April, Southwest cut between 2.5 and 3.5 percent respectively. This looks more like a broader pulldown to match lower expected demand.
Spirit Makes January Cuts
Spirit has filed cuts for January through February 15. January is down just over 8 percent. Cuts are pretty broad. The only markets that disappear during that time period are Fort Lauderdale – Hartford, Managua, Minneapolis/St Paul, Pensacola, Raleigh/Durham; Detroit – Minneapolis/St Paul; Orlando – Port-au-Prince; and Miami – San Salvador, St Thomas.
In other news, Spirit will add Miami – Minneapolis/St Paul in January.
United Abandons Small Cities
This is the biggest news of a busy week. United will end service to 9 small cities and will cancel service on an additional four routes. The cities losing United service entirely are:
- Central Wisconsin
- College Station (TX)
- Columbia (MO)
- Evansville (IN)
- Kalamazoo (MI)
- Killeen (TX)
- Lansing (MI)
- Monroe (LA)
- Winnipeg
Additional routes going away are Manchester (NH) – Washington/Dulles, San Antonio – LA, Northwest Arkansas – SFO, and Wilmington (NC) – Chicago which will be replaced with flights from Newark. There are additional frequency cuts as United scrambles to find enough regional capacity.
Other Randomness
- Aeromexico has extended 787 flying from Mexico City to both JFK and LA through March.
- Aha! has filed its latest new route from Reno, this time to Palm Springs 3x weekly starting in January.
- Air Canada has extended its suspension of Canada – Hong Kong flights through January. They’ll continue to go through Incheon.
- Delta has filed some cuts for early January with the biggest hits being right after the holidays through January 9. We expect there is more to come.
- Hawaiian has pulled down its interisland schedule for January, getting it more in line with previous months.
- Porter has now reversed its filing from last week and has restored 78 seats to the Q400, back up from 74.
- Qantas has delayed the return of LA – Brisbane until February.
- SWISS will pull down Miami – Zurich from 12x weekly to 1x daily starting at the end of March.
- TUIfly will bring back Miami – Brussels 2x weekly in April.
- Virgin Atlantic has suspended LA – Manchester through at least the end of next summer season on October 27, 2022.
- Xiamen Air has pulled down its LA – Xiamen flight from 4x weekly to 2x weekly through the end of schedule.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines.
