Frontier Makes Big Cuts Next Summer While Delta Extends Suspensions

The holidays have arrived in Airlineville! Ok, ok, they aren’t quite here yet, but the residents are ready, and they are starting to slow their pace just a bit.

Cirium data showed that the Eskimo, the Sun, and the Taxi have all already left on vacation while the Maple Leaf and the Eagle mostly just did some housekeeping work in preparation for the big day.

That’s not to say that everyone was quiet. The Animal, well, he was a complete animal. He isn’t thinking about the holidays at all, instead making big changes to his plans for next summer.

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

American Goes Up and Down

American had a lot filed this week, but most of it was pretty minor. Sure, DFW – Anchorage goes from 1x to 2x daily next summer and LA loses 2x to 3x daily during the spring, but that’s about the extent of the excitement. The season was extended in Miami – Des Moines, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, and Omaha from early April to early May. I’m really just grasping at straws here.

Delta Pulls Down March and April

Delta started to bring down March and April more, this week by about 2 percent. Regionals saw capacity pulled more than mainline with SkyWest losing more than 10 percent in March. There were several other market changes with MSP taking the brunt of it.

• Boston – Memphis, Toronto suspension extended through summer
• Minneapolis/St Paul – Albany, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Rochester (NY), Saginaw, Syracuse; New York/JFK – Houston/IAH; Salt Lake City – Pittsburgh; and Seattle – Calgary suspension extended through summer
• Minneapolis/St Paul – Albuquerque, Buffalo, Knoxville, Tulsa; Detroit – Oklahoma City; and Raleigh/Durham – Chicago/O’Hare suspension extended to June
• Raleigh/Durham – Philly suspension extended to May
• Salt Lake – Fairbanks and Minneapolis/St Paul – Helena will not operate next summer

Frontier Goes Nuts Next Summer

Frontier had a massive change for next summer with capacity dropping about 10 percent from May through July. Some of this was due to gauge changes that will surely be shifted later, but there were also major market changes. More than 50 markets that were scheduled to operate have now been pulled. This includes some stalwarts like Denver – Reno and Spokane or Austin – Orlando. This feels like a clearing of the decks until something new gets filed.

There were also 6 new markets for next summer filed this week. Albany – Raleigh/Durham, Atlanta – Punta Cana, Buffalo – Miami, Cleveland – Punta Cana, Little Rock – Orlando, and Orlando – San Diego.

Hawaiian Settles January

Hawaiian pulled down Asia flying in January, extending its pandemic schedule further. It also pulled down interisland placeholder schedules through March. The most exciting thing, however? Honolulu – Auckland will go from 2x to 3x weekly when it returns in late March.

United Cuts Down January and February

January is down 6 percent and February 3 percent for United. The biggest cuts were in Newark, which was down over 5 percent in February mostly on shorter-haul cuts while no other hub was down more than 1.5 percent.

The January drop was largely attributed to the further suspension of Australia and Asia flying with big cuts in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and New Zealand.

WestJet Goes Long

WestJet went further out than usual, bringing down both February and March schedules about 35 percent. During that period, these routes will go away: Calgary – Belize, Nassau; Halifax – Montreal; Kelowna – Phoenix; St Johns – Orlando; Toronto – Cayo Coco, Fort McMurray, Varadero; Vancouver – Orlando; Victoria – Los Cabos; and Winnipeg – Las Vegas, Montego Bay, Phoenix.

Other Randomness

• Aer Lingus will go from 1x A330 and 1x A321neo per day in JFK – Dublin to 2x A330 starting at the end of March.
• Azul will bring the Campinas – Orlando flight up from 5x weekly to 1x daily starting in March.
• Caribbean Airlines is out of JFK – Tobago through the winter.
• Cathay Pacific will keep Boston suspended through January, and Chicago will fly only 1x weekly.
• Denver Air Connection will add 1x weekly additional flight in Denver – Alliance, Clovis and Watertown. Telluride flying will end in early April for the season.
• Eastern extended JFK – Guayaquil through the summer.
• EVA has extended its pandemic schedule through February.
• French Bee will fly from LA to Paris/Orly 4x weekly starting in April, going to 5x weekly in June.
• LATAM won’t fly Miami – Buenos Aires in December.
• LOT is moving next summer’s Krakow flight to go from Newark instead of JFK.
• SAS will add 1x weekly from Miami to Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm this winter. Chicago – Copenhagen gets another 2x weekly.
• Southwest continued to pull capacity by removing between 100 and 150 flights every day but Sunday from January 17 through February 16.
• Sun Country has dropped MSP – Austin in April and May.
• SWISS will boost JFK – Zurich from 1x to 2x daily for the summer schedule.
• Turkish is increasing frequency for next summer to the following: Atlanta to 1x daily, Boston to 10x weekly, Chicago to 2x daily, DFW to 1x daily, Houston to 10x weekly, LAX to 2x daily, Miami to 2x daily, San Francisco to 2x daily, and Washington/Dulles to 2x daily.

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