Cranky Weekly Review Presented by Oakland International Airport: AA Adds AAtlantic, Southwest Adds Bennies, More

American Adds Copenhagen, Naples, and Nice In Summer Expansion

American has rolled out its big summer expansion plans to Europe*, and the highlights include a trio of new routes from Philadelphia to Copenhagen, Naples, and Nice. Copenhagen was American’s alternate plan after the airline gave up on finding a third city starting with N that had enough demand. (Sorry, Newcastle.)

These new flights will run daily through next summer. The airline is focusing on building back up its Philadelphia hub after the pandemic and the end of the Northeast Alliance with JetBlue that had shifted focus to New York.

American will also begin a new flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Barcelona and restart Chicago/O’Hare to Venice next summer. It will further pull forward the seasonal start on several European routes next year, and it will convert five into year-round service: Charlotte – Madrid, Dallas/Fort Worth – Dublin and Rome, and Philly – Barcelona and Lisbon.

*Expansion plans dependent upon Boeing widebodies not having some random FAA grounding or other trouble that would surprise nobody

Southwest Adds Free Wifi for Some and Free Standby for All

After making some changes to its fare structure last year, Southwest has now tweaked its offerings, adding two new benefits: free standby for all and free wifi for Business Select customers.

Since last year, all travelers on Wanna Get Away Plus, Anytime, and Business Select fares have had the ability to stand-by for another flight on the same day as original travel at no extra charge. That benefit has now been extended to the airline’s lowest Wanna Get Away fares. We assume Southwest figures if it can delay and cancel your flight and make you move more often than not, it might as well just let you opt to move yourself on similar terms.

Southwest will also make wifi free to those on Business Select fares. This is a true benefit that saves passenger effort by cutting out the middleman and not requiring travelers to write in to request a refund when the wifi inevitably doesn’t work.

US Airlines Detail Plans for More China Flying

With the US and China agreeing to double weekly permitted flights between the two countries to 48 (24 from airlines based in each country) starting at the end of October, the race is on to see which airlines will win the right to use the extra frequencies. The US carriers have already made their plans known.

American, Delta, and United each have 4x weekly flights to China today. American has requested an extra 3x weekly to make its DFW – Shanghai flight operate daily. Delta wants an extra 6x weekly so it can go daily from Detroit to Shanghai and increase from 2x to 3x weekly from Seattle. United is the greediest of all and wants an extra 10x weekly so it can go daily from San Francisco to Shanghai and restart San Francisco to Beijing daily.

Our math skills are pretty good, so we’re sure that 12x today plus 10x from United, 6x from Delta, and 3x from American adds up to a number greater than 24. This doesn’t even include the 4x weekly Delta wants to start next year from Los Angeles to Shanghai in what can only be deemed wishful thinking. What will actually end up flying? Stay tuned….

Southwest Opens a Crew Base in Nashville

Southwest announced it will open a new crew base in Nashville in 2024. The base will house 150-250 pilots initially, eventually ramping up to 500-600. There will also be 500-700 flight attendants with plans to grow further depending upon how many of them go to Nashville for a bachelorette party and then just decide to stay.

This is only Southwest’s 12th crew base, following Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Orlando, and Phoenix, so it’s kind of a big deal.

As if that’s not enough excitement for you — if you consider it exciting at all — Southwest says it will also have four new gates in Nashville by the end of the year, bringing the airline’s total to 20.

Azores Airlines Looks to the Mainland for Growth

The Azores is not a big place, so Azores Airlines is looking elsewhere for its future growth plans. The airline is planning to open a base in Porto, Portugal for Transatlantic flying next summer.

Porto has limited Transatlantic service from other carriers during the summer with 1x daily on TAP Air Portugal to Newark, 1x daily on United to Newark, and 1x daily on Air Transat split between Montréal and Toronto.

Reports say that Azores is looking at flying from Porto to Boston, New York/JFK, and Toronto (Pearson, not City, in case you had some crazy ideas). Azores has flown from Porto to Toronto before, but not since 2017 when it operated 1x weekly. The airline will operate A321LRs, but it is expected to also have a fleet of fishing boats as back-up just in case.

• Aer Lingus is going to Denver… and back to Minneapolis/St Paul
• Air Niugini is ready to get rid of those little Fokkers
• Amaszonas is not dead yet
• AnadoluJet is finally going out on its own… in 2024
• Calafia Airlines is not currently cala-flying, but it hopes to restart again soon — they all do
• Canada Jetlines lost less than a million bucks last quarter
• Catania Airport suspended flights after Mt Etna rudely erupted this week
• Delta has a fancy new lounge in Boston
• Egyptair is coming back to the City of Angels, this time without that pesky New York stop
• Elite Airways received a 30-day stay of execution on losing its certificate because it says it has lined up a magical new investor to solve its problems
• Ethiopian will start flying to London/Gatwick from November
• Fiji Airways now has the A350 trifecta
• Finnair is joining the Avios party
• GlobalX goes small
• Hawaiian won’t have wifi up and running until 2024 now
• LATAM is going to London from Lima
• Luxwing is ready to get into the charter business
• Rex was a good boy, so he will get to keep flying from Perth to Albany, Esperance, and Carnarvon (which goes on to a place apparently actually called Monkey Mia) for another five years
• Skippers Aviation was also a good boy, apparently, because he gets to fly for another five years from Perth to Laverton and on to Leonora along with Wiluna and on to Meekatharra and Mount Magnet
• Southwest and its rampers have a tentative agreement
• Turkish isn’t quite ready to place a super, mega, giganto-order for airplanes
• Wheels Up was not going to be putting its wheels up for much longer, but then Delta saved the day
• Wizz Air will add an 11th aircraft to its Rome/Fiumicino base

6 was scared of 7 because 7, 8, 9, but why did 7 eat 9?

Because you’re supposed to eat 3 squared meals a day.

(Andrew is out this week, so you can blame Brett for the groans)