Alaska Finalizes Hawaiian Merger
Better late than never — the DOT approved the merger of Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines this week, paving the way to complete the joining of the two carriers while they will continue to maintain their separate brands in the public eye.
Alaska had to agree to some minor concessions to the DOT — read more about them in Thursday’s crankyflier.com post — but did not have to give up much of consequence to make the deal happen, and it will now get down to work on combining the two carriers while trying to keep the core customers for both brands happy.
The combined carrier now operates about 1,500 daily flights to 141 destinations — some of which are not in Alaska or Hawaiʻi. Honolulu will become the second largest hub in the combined carrier’s network, behind Seattle. Loyalty members will be able to transfer miles at a 1:1 rate between the two programs at no cost in the near future, while those who live on the islands will see a new program introduced called Huakaʻi by Hawaiian to give special perks just like Club 49 in Alaska.
With both brands expected to survive for the indefinite future, customers won’t see too many changes when flying. Both carriers will maintain their networks, and while we can’t expect to see POG juice on Alaska anytime soon, one can always hope.
JetBlue to Open Lounges in New York and Boston
JetBlue Airways has been rumored to be on the verge of opening a lounge at New York/JFK for about as long as JetBlue has been an airline — but it’s finally coming true. The airline announced Thursday it plans to open not just one lounge, but two. An 8,000 square foot lounge will open at JetBlue’s home at JFK’s T5 late next year, with an even larger 11,000 square foot lounge to follow at Boston’s Terminal C.
The size of 8,000 to 11,000 square feet isn’t huge — for comparison, Delta’s new Delta One lounge at JFK is nearly 40,000 square feet. The airline didn’t release images or renderings, leaving the whole concept to the imagination, with dreams of flowing fountains of Dunkin’ coffee greeting passengers and a minty fresh color scheme throughout accented by blue chips scattered tastefully.
Access will be limited to those traveling in Mint to or from Europe. Domestic flights with Mint and those within North America and the Caribbean will not be granted access. Annual memberships will be available and surely cost-effective, while JetBlue’s top tier loyalty members, the dramatically named Mosaic 4, will have access. Lastly those who sign up for JetBlue’s mystery new credit card will also be allowed into the hallowed halls. Rumor has it the card will be carefully crafted from the skin of scrapped Embraer 190s fused together by tears from former CEO Robin Hayes.
JetBlue is being very mindful of keeping its costs low despite opening lounges. The airline plans to require all Blue Basic Economy passengers originating or ending their travels in New York or Boston to work a one-hour shift in the lounge.
A Breeze Blows into Northern Virginia
Washington/Dulles is getting a new airline this fall, as Breeze Airways blows into the nation’s capital with four routes including its first EAS contract with service to Ogdensburg, New York (OGS). Ogdensburg is a strange place for federal funding considering it exists as an airport mostly for Ottawans driving an hour south to get cheaper flights in the US. But both families that live in Ogdensburg will surely be appreciative.
In addition to government-subsidized service to OGS, Breeze will connect Dulles with Provo, South Bend, and Vero Beach. IAD – OGS service begins next Friday and will operate daily on an A220. 3x weekly service to Provo begins October 1, South Bend will operate 2x weekly and commence on November 8, while Vero Beach will begin November 21 and also be 2x weekly.
None of these four cities currently have regular service to the DC area, but Breeze is hoping to help the local residents in all four places more interested in the inner-workings of the federal government with these flights. As part of these efforts, customers can expect riveting in-flight entertainment on all flights to Washington.
Delta Adds Across the Pond
Delta Air Lines announced seven new routes, one new destination, and five increased frequencies as part of its summer 2025 schedule to Europe. The airline has chosen to put most of its capacity into tried-and-true tourist markets instead of bolstering the new mega-hub coming to Copenhagen, which is bound to surpass Paris as the most important point in the Delta/Air France-KLM European network.
Catania, Italy (CTA) is a new destination for Delta, and it’ll be served daily from New York/JFK. Other new routes for the carrier include Atlanta to both Naples (4x weekly) and Brussels (3x weekly), Boston to Milan/MXP (4x weekly) and Barcelona (3x weekly), and 4x weekly service on both Minneapolis/St Paul to Rome/FCO and Detroit to Dublin.
Frequencies are going up on four routes from Atlanta — Athens (7x to 11x weekly), Barcelona (7x to 10x weekly), Rome/FCO (14x to 17x weekly), and Zurich (4x weekly to daily), while Detroit to Munich also will operate daily next summer.
Charlotte Opens Ten New Gates
Charlotte Douglas International Airport opened ten new gates this week as part of a 200,000 square foot expansion after two-and-a-half years of construction.
The new gates are in the airport’s Concourse A, and will see Delta claim seven gates, Frontier two, and the final addition will be common use for anyone — squatters rights apply, which means it’ll probably just go to American like everything else there. The new gates are part of a major push to update the airport and include two new pedestrian bridges that opened earlier this summer, and a $600 million terminal lobby expansion that is currently underway.
The expansion cost about $240 million, and was funded by bonds, passenger facility charges, and a state grant.
- Air Belgium has entered bankruptcy and its days appear to be numbered.
- Air Canada avoided a pilots strike at the last minute.
- Air France will reveal its new La Premiere later this year. For those who don’t speak French, La Premiere translates to “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”
- airBaltic is in pre-IPO talks. Although if we accept that as a concept, couldn’t nearly every conversation we all have at any point in our lives be considered pre-IPO?
- American could be making a credit card move finally, maybe, eventually.
- BA is adding 4x weekly service from London/Heathrow to Tbilisi on March 30.
- Brussels Airlines is adding three more A330s in the coming years to strengthen its network in Africa.
- Canada Jetlines filed for bankruptcy. Sorry we forgot to add a spoiler alert there.
- Cape Air is now an option for mileage earning and redemptions for JetBlue TrueBlue members.
- China Southern is returning to Adelaide with 3x weekly flights beginning December 12.
- Delta is now the official airline partner of Birmingham City Football Club in England’s League One. When finding out the team did not play its home games in Alabama, the airline said “we knew that, we knew it all along.”
- JetBlue named for Sabre president and CEO Sean Menke to its board of directors. The airline meant to add him to the board last month, but due to simultaneous changes had to ignore and retrieve and try again.
- Jetstar is adding more ways to get to Australia’s Gold Coast.
- KLM‘s first A321neo began flying on Monday.
- Lufthansa is considering ending its Frankfurt – Beijing route.
- Qatar is adding four additional weekly flights to Amsterdam this winter
- SAS is interested in tossed salad and scrambled eggs.
- Starlux is moving towards oneworld.
- Thai is considering a joint MRO business with Thai Aviation Industries.
- Turkish is headed to Sydney.
- United will open both a United Club Fly grab-n-go concept and a new, Texas-sized full lounge in its Houston/IAH hub next year.
- Vietnam Airlines will begin flying to Milan/MXP on July 1, its first foray into Italy.
If dentists make all their money off people with bad teeth, why would I ever trust a toothpaste that’s recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists?
25 comments on “Cranky Weekly Review Presented by San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport: Alaska Says Aloha, JetBlue Goes Loungin’”
The “BA to add flights to Georgia…Tiblisi, not Atlanta” home was right there :)
AA having 2 credit cards is a good thing. I keep the Citibank one, get all the mileage bonuses, then sign up for the Barclay’s and get all the mileage bonus, and drop it after a year. Then I sign up for Barclay’s later…and get all the mileage bonuses.
I wonder if SAS will add MSP-CPH/OSL/ARN service soon. Seems like a no-brainer, and I’m surprised Delta doesn’t have something already.
Why is it a no-brainer?
The Nordic diaspora up there is several generations removed usually. I can’t imagine a whole ton of VFR traffic exists.
Yes, it would be like adding a flight from DTW **just** to serve the German diaspora in Michigan… Not many direct familial connections (many/most families with German roots in Michigan had their ancestors arrive in the US 100-150 years ago), so you need business interests (maybe the auto OEMs that serve both Detroit and Germany automakers?) to make the route work.
In terms of longer international flights to serve VFR/ex-pat traffic, I assume that DTW has a few flights to the Middle East, given the substantial (and relatively recently arrived) Arab/ME population in eastern Michigan. The same could also apply to MSP to a lesser extent.
Do ya think the Breeze service to SBN will ever see Secretary Pete on board…???
Does Breeze have (or will it get) the contract for hauling federal pax on that route?
Even if not, the route probably can’t hurt Breeze politically, so long as it doesn’t screw it up. I know that if If I were in Breeze’s ops or government relations teams, I’d be tempted to prioritize operational performance on the SBN route over similar routes.
No – United has the GSA City Pair contract for IAD-SBN at least through next year. It’s generally quite difficult for an airline with Breeze’s operating model to compete for the GSA contract on any city pair that touches a legacy hub. The GSA considers several quality of service factors when choosing the airline for each route:
1. Timeband/Service Distribution
2. Average Elapsed Flight Time
3. Number/Type of Flights
Breeze (and Spirit/Frontier/Avelo/Allegiant/etc.) generally score very poorly for #1 and #3. They have flights at inconvenient times, low frequency, and few good connecting options as alternatives to nonstops.
Interestingly, though, Breeze *was* awarded several GSA City Pair routes for FY2025. I’ve listed them below, grouped by operating base, with duplicated routes (between based) starred for clarity:
BDL-EWN
BDL-LAS
BDL-RDU
BDL-RSW
CHS-LAS
CHS-MCO
CHS-PIT
CHS-PVD
MSY-RDU
MCO-CHS*
MCO-EWN
MCO-PVD
MCO-SPI
TPA-RIC
TPA-GPT
TPA-CAK
ORF-CAK
PVD-CHS*
PVD-MCO
PVD-RDU
These are all pretty low-volume routes. The busiest was TPA-RIC, with 1,561 GSA CPP passengers in FY24. CAK-TPA only had 20. Still, it indicates that Breeze is serious about doing business with the federal government, which is unusual for an airline with their operating model. Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant, and Avelo all don’t have any routes in the GSA City Pair program.
For FY26, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go for the ORF-SAN route, which is the busiest route in the GSA City Pair Program without nonstop service. Breeze has a base in ORF and flies an ORF-SAN nonstop 4x/week, and it’s the type of long, thin route that the A220 is perfect for. In FY24 there were 35,702 GSA CPP passengers flying ORF-SAN, so ~49 passengers/day each way, before considering travel by contractors outside the GSA City Pair program. ORF-JAX (16,475 FY24 passengers) and ORF-PVD (9,964) are others I would expect them to eventually pick up.
Thank you for this post! It is very informative!
Where did you obtain this data, if I may ask? I am assuming it is publicly available?
Here you go…
https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-a-trip/transportation-airfare-rates-pov-rates-etc/airfare-rates-city-pair-program
Thank you.
DOT not requiring Alaska to serve POG juice on all flights, regardless Alaska or Hawaiian metal/flight, touching Hawaii is a major miss!
Alaska already serves POG on flights to and from Hawaii: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/travel-info/flight-experience/main-cabin/food-and-drink
I even checked the Wayback Machine and found this listed in a snapshot of the page from February, so it’s not a post-acquisition change.
Are “simos” unique to Sabre or do all airline reservation system users struggle with them?
I think it happens in all GDSs.
I remember it happening when I worked as a travel agent in a shop that used Apollo.
I have a similar problem sometimes even in 2024 when I go to save an Excel document that’s stored in OneDrive and it thinks there are conflicting edits. But that’s just Microsoft being dumb since it’s not shared with anyone else.
Ugh, same here. At least conflicting document versions (both for documents that I’m the only person editing, as well as those with multiple people editing) are better in OneDrive & Teams than they were only a few years ago in the previous version of SharePoint.
That said, I’ve been burned enough that (if at all possible) I try to wait until all my colleagues are out of a document before making my changes.
Are there any safeguard in place on EAS services to places along the Canadian border to prevent (or charge more to) Canadians?
Also, did anyone else bid for the Odgensburg EAS service?
I think most Americans would be at least a little annoyed if this EAS subsidy winds up benefitting Canadians more than Americans. There’s also the issue that service to Washington-National isn’t service to a full national/international hub as the existing EAS service from Coutour is (PHL, ending on the 26th) – to outside the perimeter or the exception cities would require a double-connection or ground transfer to Dulles.
For comparison’s sake, Presque Isle now has EAS service on JetBlue to Boston, offering connections to many European and Latin American destinations and a few beyond that. The nearest major Canadian city, Fredrickton, NB, is roughly twice the travel time from Presque Isle as Ottawa is from Odgensburg, and even with the smaller cities between Fredrickton and Presque Isle you’d be hard-pressed to get much more than a tenth of Ottawa-Gatineau’s population of ~1.6 million.
Ogensburg isn’t the worst EAS candidate I’ve seen – hi, Merced! – Google Maps puts the drive from the two airports at right on 2 hours. But National is not the right airport, and unless Coutour is running more frequencies that Breeze will, going from a 30-passenger plan to (eventually, depending on A220 deliveries) a 137-passenger plane is just inviting some of our wonderful but avaitation-overtaxed neighbors to take advantage.
Wow, I didn’t have enough caffeine for that first sentence, it looks like “Hulk write comment!”
Let’s make that “Are there any safeguards in place on EAS services to places along the Canadian border to prevent Canadians from taking advantage, or at least charging them more?”
CraigTPA – Nope, anyone can take any flight, prices are the same.
The flight is to Dulles which is a full international airport with global and national service. If anything, I think attracting Canadians is good for helping the city keep EAS service by ensuring enplament targets are reached, unlike other EAS cities that lost their right to service when pax figures were too low to stay in the program.
Congress just passed a restriction this year that requires EAS routes to be <650 miles. This prevents EAS from subsidizing the proposed OGS-MCO nonstop on Breeze, and prevents other airlines from getting EAS subsidies for routes from the Canadian border to Florida, Vegas, etc.
That's enough to close the biggest loophole. In theory Canadians can drive from Ottawa to OGS, or from Montreal to PBG to take advantage of a subsidized flight to IAD or PHL, but it's enough of a hassle that there aren't many people who would actually do it.
At the same time, if Breeze adds IAD-MCO and then runs this route as a "BreezeThru", then I could see a situation where they fill the plane primarily with Canadians from the Ottawa area. They're not doing that for now, though.
I should have had coffee before typing that first sentence.
Let’s make that: “Are there any safeguards in place on EAS services to places along the Canadian border to prevent Canadians from benefiting from the subsidies?”
OGS-IAD is the most baffling “dart board” route I’ve seen Breeze try, out of *many* candidates. My biggest questions:
1. How much existing demand is there to travel from the Ogdensburg-Massena area specifically to DC? Yes, they can attract some cross-border customers from the Ottawa area, but how many budget-conscious travelers are looking for flights between Ottawa and DC specifically? YOW has 3 flights/day to IAD and 1 flight/day to DCA – anyone traveling between capitals on official business is going to be on one of them. Maybe they can generate some demand for DC are residents to vacation in the North Country, but the tourism season there is pretty short.
2. Why fly into a brand new station that has almost no connectivity to the rest of the Breeze network? Breeze flights aren’t really timed for connections, but a flight to an existing base like ORF could enable connections or even “BreezeThru” flights to whisk the Ottawans to a final destination in Florida. The initial flights to IAD don’t indicate any real connecting traffic strategy.
In filings, Breeze has said they are in talks for interline agreements with other carriers (maybe United at IAD)? But until that’s in place this seems like a route with very limited demand.
I’m guessing that there were political advantages to serving IAD that I just don’t understand.