It’s that time of year again. When the calendar turns over, that means it’s time to announce the nominees for the Cranky Network Awards. This year’s fourth annual celebration is presented by Oakland International Airport and will take place on February 22.
As always, we aim to award the best in US/Canada airline network planning. This includes everything that was announced in 2023 regardless of when it started flying.
Enough of these caveats. Let’s announce this year’s nominees.
Sexiest New Route – Short-Haul
- Anchorage – San Diego on Alaska
- Atlanta – Curaçao on Delta
- Los Angeles – Nassau on JetBlue
- New Haven – San Juan on Avelo
- Ottawa – Las Vegas on Flair
Sexiest New Route – Long-Haul
- Atlanta – Nice on Delta
- Montréal – Marrakech on Air Transat
- Munich – Seattle on Lufthansa
- Newark – Faro on United
- Vancouver – Dubai on Air Canada
Calculated Risk Award
- Allegiant for its return to Orlando (MCO)
- American for its focus on Southern US hubs
- Delta for its Austin expansion
- Southwest for moving its Florida international gateway from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando
- United for investing heavily in long-haul growth
Most Clever Flight Number
- Alaska 777: San Diego – Washington/Dulles
- American 3846: College Station – Miami
- Flair 1512: Calgary – Las Vegas
- JetBlue 72: Edinburgh – New York/JFK
- Sun Country 1916: Missoula – Minneapolis/St Paul
Best Airport Partner
- Abe Weber, Appleton International Airport (ATW)
- Janet Fischer, Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation (HDN)
- Joe Rotterdam, Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
- Julie Curtis, South Bend International Airport (SBN)
- Paul Forde, Winnipeg Airports Authority (YWG)
Best Aircraft-Enabled Opportunity
- Anchorage – New York/JFK on Alaska
- Calgary – Keflavik on WestJet
- Cincinnati – San Francisco on Breeze
- Montréal – Marrakech on Air Transat
- New York/JFK – Amsterdam on JetBlue
Most Promising New Partnership presented by Pittsburgh International Airport
- Alaska and Hawaiian (merger)
- American and Dallas/Fort Worth (new terminal development)
- JetBlue and both Allegiant and Frontier (asset divestitures)
- Porter and Air Transat (new joint venture)
- United, Lufthansa, and Deutsche Bahn (multimodal)
Best New Destination
- Christchurch on United
- Nuuk on Air Greenland
- Salem (OR) on Avelo
- Tijuana on American
- Tulum on Air Canada, American, Delta, JetBlue, Spirit, and United
Most Improved Network presented by Oakland International Airport
- JetBlue (European growth)
- Lynx (US expansion)
- Porter (Embraer E2 growth markets)
- Southwest (additional frequency across the network)
- United (Pacific expansion)
There are two more categories returning from last year that do not have nominees but rather have a pre-ordained winner. We won’t announce those winners in advance, but you can see the categories here.
- Network Victory Award presented by Boeing – honoring a larger successful network achievement
- Route Victory Award – honoring a single route’s success
We are also working on one or two more, including one that we’re putting together with Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that will be a new one this year.
Some of those flight numbers are easy to understand while others… maybe not so much. But we’ll talk more about what they all mean when we hold the awards. This year won’t be streamed, but we will have a wrap-up video to share in addition to all the winners.
