Last week I put on the 2024 Cranky Network Awards presented by Oakland International Airport with Courtney Miller from Visual Approach, as you probably know. It was a great night where we honored the best in airline network planning, but it was also a night of fun, joking, and roasting. Though we no longer stream the awards, we don’t want to deprive you completely of all the fun, so here’s some of what you missed.
Even without streaming, we did hire a videographer to put together shortened versions and highlight reels for us to share. That takes time, so right now I only have the short highlight reel ready. I will post the more substantive one later with actual acceptance speeches and all that when it’s finished, but for now…
What about the winners? You don’t need to wait for the longer version to find that out. This was posted on Twitter/X in real time, but for those who missed it, here is the lineup of well-deserving winners:
- Sexiest New Route – Short-Haul
- JetBlue for Los Angeles to Nassau
- Sexiest New Route – Long-Haul (presented by Airbus)
- Air Transat for Montréal to Marrakech
- Route Victory Award
- American for its success on Miami – Beef Island/Tortola
- Most Promising New Partnership (presented by Pittsburgh International Airport)
- Alaska for its acquisition of Hawaiian
- All-Season All-Star (presented by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport)
- United for finding places in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand for its widebodies in winter
- Best Airport Partner
- Paul Forde from Winnipeg Airports Authority
- Calculated Risk Award
- American for its focus on the southern half of the US
- Best New Destination
- Tulum, split between Air Canada, American, Delta, JetBlue, United, and Spirit (it will eventually go there)
- Best Aircraft-Enabled Opportunity
- Alaska for Anchorage to New York/JFK on the 737-8 MAX
- Network Victory Award (presented by Boeing)
- Delta for its success in the Boston hub
- Most Clever Flight Number
- Flair for F8 1512 marking the exact difference in feet between the departure gate in Calgary and the arrival gate in Las Vegas
- Most Improved Network (presented by Oakland International Airport)
- United for its big Pacific expansion
You probably want to see more than just the winners in print, right? Of course you do. So we’ve pulled out some of the video productions we create to show in between awards… for your viewing pleasure.
There are several big airlines that don’t fly to Oakland. Could it be that they don’t know where Oakland is? We decided it was time to go back to school with a little Oakland 101.
Of course, we have the annual Airlines We Lost 2023 video. I post about those airlines here at the end of each year, but we’ve begun putting them in video form to show during the awards show, because what’s an awards show without the “in memoriam” segment?
Back in 2022, we started putting together “Profiles in Courage” to poke a little fun at some of the big events of the previous year. This year, we continue the tradition.
First up, we have Profiles in Courage – Judge Sorokin, the man who ended the JetBlue/American Northeast Alliance.
Then we followed that one with Delta’s courageous decision to bring in a true leader to drive the airline to victory with Profiles in Courage – Delta Air Lines.
You can get a sense of just how much fun we have at this thing. And nobody is spared from the jokes, not even me. I mean, just look at what I’m wearing…
Though we may have a lot of fun with this, we take the awards themselves very seriously and put a lot of effort into picking those winners. Congratulations to all!
Next year, we’re back in Phoenix for the 2025 Cranky Network Awards presented by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The planning has already begun….
15 comments on “A First Look at What You Missed at The 2024 Cranky Network Awards”
I don’t understand the flight number thing. Pretty sure Calgary and Vegas are more than 1/4 mile apart. Is it a difference in elevation? Help?
Yes, it looks like the words “in elevation” were left out of (or could have been added, for better clarity) the “the exaction **in elevation** in feet” of the description of that.
* “the exact difference **in elevation** in feet”
I can’t seem to type this morning.
Yes, elevation, sorry about that.
Glad I watched the videos. They were quite amusing and show a fun side of things.
I was waiting with bated breath to see who the winners were. I’m still having problems figuring out how to put together posts on X/Twitter. By the way, I must say that your outfit is a vast improvement over last years. At least the colors don’t clash! (I’m very anal retentive about color). LOL
Beef Island? I had to look that one up. Thanks to American Airlines for the geography lesson.
The videos, especially the narration, are incredible. Not sure which one I liked best: Oakland 101 or Delta’s strategic decision-maker. Maybe you’ve found a new division of the CF empire: Cranky Voiceovers!?
Eric – Well thank you, and yes, I’ll make myself available for voiceovers with questionably British accents. (For the record, OAK 101 is my favorite.)
Wasn’t there once a person who thought they got on a flight from LA to Oakland, but was actually a flight to Auckland?
southbay – I don’t know if it happened in real life, but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS_aZbtDeoQ
Hasn’t United already been flying ANC to EWR (seasonally) on the 737-8 MAX? Why give Alaska the award for flying a couple miles further?
EB – Ah, see here’s where it gets fun. United has flown that for years but up until recently it was a 757 which can easily do it. Now United can move it over to the MAX 8 which is better, but it could still fly it either way. For Alaska, it would never have a reason to buy a longer range aircraft like a 757 just for those possible routes like ANC-JFK. So, the ability of the MAX 8 to fly further distances is what creates opportunities for these more regional airlines to go further.
Love the Oakland 101 video – especially going to the lengths of getting an Air NZ staff member to riff on the Oakland vs Auckland thing!
In NZ accents, it sounds pretty close… and in Japanese it’s the same… but anyway, great stuff!
Love from Auckland, NZ :)
I struggle to see the demand to fly LAX to NAS nonstop. Not sure what B6 route planners were thinking with this one. I can see B6 being more successful flying JFK/CMH instead.