Delta Releases Q2 Earnings, Announces New Partner

Delta Air Lines ended June with a $2.3 billion profit on $16.7 billion gross revenue for the year’s second quarter, earning just a hair over $2 per share for its shareholders.

Delta ran an operating margin of 15% for the quarter and closed out the year’s first half with $640 million socked away for next year’s profit sharing for staff. Employees will have the option of taking the cash or the equivalent poundage in Biscoffs, and must declare their choice by the end of the year. The $16.7 billion revenue figure was a 5.4% jump from Q2 last year, despite a 2.6% drop in TRASM YoY.

It also signed an agreement with Riyadh Air — an airline that doesn’t fly anywhere yet — to serve as the new carrier’s exclusive partner in North America with an expectation to begin service to Riyadh from a yet-to-be-disclosed gateaway (likely one that rhymes with Platlanta) next year.

The carrier operated 39 days during the quarter without canceling a flight, but still managed to cancel your weekend getaway flight despite the weather seemingly being fine both at home and your destination. It ended the quarter with 15,585 units of blood collected at 373 staff blood drives and $2.5 billion of cash on hand — if it were willing to swap the blood for cash, that figure would rise closer to $3 billion.

Alaska’s Winter Just Got More Fun

Alaska Airlines added 18 new routes and one first-time destination earlier this week to a combination of sun-splashed winter getaways, fun ski destinations, and Tucson. Of the 18, Alaska confirmed some of these routes are in partnership with Apple Leisure Vacation Group, presumably because Banana Leisure Vacation Group wouldn’t return anyone’s calls.

The new destination is Vail, which will see AS flights for the first time with 3x weekly service from both San Diego and Seattle. The other ski-focused additions include Reno (with service from San Diego), Kelowna, BC (Los Angeles), and Bozeman (Boise). For those who prefer warmth, Alaska is adding year-round flights between Boise and Orange County, and seasonal service from both Boise and Sacramento to Orlando.

San Francisco and Seattle both gain service to Liberia, Costa Rica — the SEA addition will make it the 104th exciting non-stop destination for Alaska out of its SEA hub… well, 103 plus Newark. The carrier will also grow south of the border in Mexico, with daily flights between Fresno and Guadalajara, 5x weekly between Sacramento and Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta to SMF and JFK. PVR also adds the Missouri two-step of St. Louis and Kansas City, while MCI also sees new 1x weekly service to Cancún.

Lastly, it added a daily, seasonal flight between Sacramento and Tucson for anyone who might lose a bet and need to fly between those two cities.

The Battle for DCA’s New Slots is Hot

The submissions for the five new slots beyond Washington/National’s perimeter are in, and the list is about what was expected. There are four slots available for non-limited incumbents, and one slot for limited incumbents. Spirit submitted its request for fly to San Jose and Frontier picked San Juan despite both being told by the FAA they didn’t count as limited incumbents and aren’t eligible. The airlines do not agree, and went ahead and sent their requests in because who doesn’t love tilting at windmills?

The complete list is as follows:

• American: San Antonio
• Alaska: San Diego
• Delta: Seattle (alternate: Salt Lake City)
• Frontier: San Juan
• JetBlue: San Juan (alternate: Los Angeles)
• Spirit: San Jose
• Southwest: Las Vegas continuing to Sacramento
• United: San Francisco (alternate: Los Angeles)

Breeze noted to the DOT that if it were eligible for the process, it would have “satisfied the selection criteria better than any other airline,” which doesn’t sound very…nice.

Southwest Airlines: It Just Means More

Southwest Airlines was named the official airline of the Southeastern Conference this week, coming as the league expands further into Southwest territory with the addition of the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma this fall.

As part of the partnership, the conference is adding additional flights to several key football games this fall including LSU vs. USC in Las Vegas, Alabama at Wisconsin, Tennessee at Oklahoma, and Georgia at Texas. Southwest will also have on-site activations at the SEC Fanfare at the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, news that will certainly please Delta.

League schools are expected to celebrate the new partnership by adopting several Southwest policies this year, including open seating at home athletic events including football, drinks served in tiny plastic cups, all food being replaced by Salty Death Mix, and allowing all fans to check two pieces of luggage for free per game.

Furthermore, all A-List Preferred members who apply to an SEC institution will received preferred admission^* and a 10% discount on tuition.

^{*Vanderbilt excluded.}

Air France-KLM Announces Codeshare and Interline with SAS

SAS joining forces with the carriers of SkyTeam took another step forward as the carrier joined with Air France-KLM for a codeshare and interline agreement, beginning September 1.

When the partnership starts, Air France and KLM customers will have access to 33 SAS destinations from its hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, while SAS customers will receive access to AF/KL’s entire European network, even the parts no self-respecting Scandinavian would ever want to visit.

The tie-up also will come with mileage reciprocity for both earning and burning through the Flying Blue and EuroBonus programs respectively. Between Air France and KLM, the combined carrier flies about 200 flights per week from Amsterdam and Paris to the three SAS hubs, while SAS flies 44 weekly flights from the trio to either Amsterdam or Paris/CDG.

• Air India‘s merger with Vistara is moving closer.
• Air Inuit added its first B737-800(SF) to add to its cargo business delivering key items to small, remote Canadian cities that are totally real places and not made up.
• Air Mauritius is finally resuming seasonal service to Geneva this fall.
• Air Sénégal is being audited.
• airBaltic had a nice June.
• Aircalin is in trouble.
• American offered its FAs a substantial rAAise.
• Breeze is blowing into Portsmouth, NH and Montrose, CO.
• Etihad is adding capacity on its new Boston flight.
• Fiji Airways is finally going to give us the non-stop connection between Nadi and Dallas/Fort Worth that’s been lacking for generations.
• Korean is close to a B777X purchase.
• Lufthansa is on the receiving end of an EU probe into its pandemic aid packages.
• Nauru Airlines is studying a possible expansion. Finally.
• Norse Atlantic is expanding its charter business.
• Qantas took so long to respond to complaints last year it brings into question the old adage that practice makes perfect.
• Ryanair likes what it sees in Tangier.
• Singapore‘s new JV with Garuda Indonesia was improved by Singapore’s government.
• SKY is looking into starting domestic operations within Argentina.
• Southwest added Rakesh Gangwal to its Board of Directors.
• United‘s wheels are coming off. Literally. American too.
• Vietnam Airlines received its first A320neo.