Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: FAA Adjusts DCA Policies, Breeze Blows Into Three

FAA to Slow DCA Arrival Flow

The FAA announced this week it would slow the rate of arrivals into Washington/National (DCA) for the immediate future due to both recovery efforts in the Potomac of American Eagle Flight 5342 and weather in the DC region.

It’s possible the temporary change could be made permanent, as the agency kept the slowdown open-ended. The plan — for now — will reduce the maximum rate of hourly arrivals from 28 to 26, giving the airport and its ATC more buffer space in the immediate area.

This decision come on the heels of the FAA’s temporary measure to close helicopter routes in and around DCA. The restrictions were placed along the Potomac River between the Woodrow Wilson Bridge — which connects Alexandria, Virginia with Oxon Hill, Maryland south of the airport — to the Memorial Bridge which connects Virginia with DC to the airport’s immediate northwest along with over DCA itself.

Breeze Blows Into Three New Destinations

Breeze Airways continues to expand as the carrier adds three new cities and a bevy of new routes to its schedule, as it blows into three of the US’s hottest towns… Albany, Memphis, and Rochester (NY)… for the first time.

Albany will receive service to both Charleston and Raleigh/Durham beginning in June, Memphis will operate to RDU and Tampa — both beginning in May, and Rochester will get CHS and RDU, also beginning in May. All six routes will operate 2x weekly

In fact, of the 14 new routes announced this week by Breeze, all will operate at 2x weekly to start, with one — RDU to Orlando increasing to 4x weekly in June. They will all — with the exception of Albany’s two additions listed above — begin flying in May.

The other new city pairs for Breeze include:

• Burlington to Charleston
• Columbus to Portland (ME)
• Greenville/Spartanburg to Fort Myers, Pittsburgh, and White Plains
• Raleigh/Durham to Pensacola
• And a resumption of Akron/Canton to Los Angeles
• West East Cucamonga to East West Snozzberry

Sun Country Ends the Year with a Profit

Sun Country closed out 2024 with $1.075 billion in operating revenue, a 2.5% jump from last year, and $106 million in profit, a nearly 17% drop in operating income from last year. The year’s final three months were a marked improvement from ’23 for the carrier, with Sun Country’s 260 million gross revenue and $26 million profit being increases of 6% and 52% respectively when compared to last year.

Of its revenue, about 38% came from scheduled airline service, a 10% drop from last year, but ancillary fees jumped 11.5% to over $300 million, and its charter business really boomed as planned, making up the difference to lead the carrier to profitability.

Sun Country’s outlook for Q1 in 2025 is a 17% to 21% operating margin on $330-$340 million in revenue. The airline finished the year with $83 million in cash and cash equivalents, nearly double what it ended 2023 with after it raised cash in a successful summer garage sale.

Air Wisconsin Braces for Layoffs

Air Wisconsin, the Appleton, WI-based regional carrier is expected to lay off at least 500 employees in the near future as the airline ends its time flying on behalf of American.

Air Wisconsin was the final regional carrier to operate the CRJ-200 for American. Delta ended its CRJ-200 service several years ago, while United still has a bunch kicking around with its regional partner SkyWest. Air Wisconsin has a fleet of more than 60 CRJ-200s, but nearly half of them are gathering mothballs in storage with nowhere to go. The airline has flown for AA since 2022, operating as United Express prior to joining up with American. After its 5-year agreement with American ends later this year, it hopes to miraculously stay in business by pivoting to increasing its charter business while still flying EAS route as codeshares with AA.

Unfortunately things do not seem to be working out as well as it hoped, as the airline informed the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development that it’s planning to layoff 513 employees — 219 salaried staff from its management team and 294 union members.

BermudAir Grows to U.S. and Canada

BermudAir is adding three destinations — two in the U.S. and one in Canada — to its route map, taking its two new E190s out for a spin to help operate the new routes. Montréal, Providence, and Richmond will all join the BermudAir family this summer with 2x weekly service. Providence begins May 22, Richmond on June 7, and Montréal on June 12 but none are expected to have any bookings for several weeks beyond that, if ever.

The carrier added two E190s that will begin service this spring, joining its existing fleet of a pair of E175s.

The service will mark the only scheduled international service into both Providence and Richmond. RIC has been without international scheduled flights more than a decade since Air Canada left the airport in 2013.

• ANA‘s takeover of Nippon Cargo Airlines received governmental approval.
• arajet is headed to the U.S. later this year.
• Delta is ending service to both Ketchikan (KTN) and Sitka (SIT) in Alaska.
• Emirates has a new lounge in Bangkok.
• Frontier is adding three routes.
• Hungary Airlines is hungry to launch any day now.
• Hunnu Air added two E2s. Who knew?
• IndiGo is damp-leasing a Dreamliner from Norse Atlantic.
• ITA has officially left SkyTeam. An anonymous alliance staffer was quoted as saying “Arrivederci and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
• JetBlue will tap into TAP’s loyalty program for TrueBlue members.
• Korean did well in 2024.
• LOT is ending its long-haul operations from Budapest.
• Lufthansa and its Lufthansa Group airlines will now let you see via Apple’s AirTag service what country they mistakenly sent your bags to.
• PIA is beginning another privatization campaign. Godspeed.
• Ryanair is closing its base in Billund.
• SAS has new uniforms.
• STARLUX intends to improve on-board connectivity. It’s also adding new service to the United States, naturally choosing Ontario, CA as it next destination.
• Sun Country received the first of eight B737-800 freighters it plans to acquire this year to operate on behalf of Amazon.
• Thai is adding eight A321neos.
• United will return to Israel next month. But it absolutely, definitely, for sure is not moving its HQ to Denver. Probably.
• Uzbekistan Airways is planning to acquire up to 14 Dreamliners beginning in 2029.