Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK Airport: AA Can’t Quit the NEA, The Shine is Off Silver

If at First (or Second) you Don’t Succeed…Ask the Courts to Reverse the Decision

Apparently American’s dream of a Northeast Alliance with JetBlue isn’t totally dead yet. American Airlines is throwing a hail mary, petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case. JetBlue decided to move on after the partnership was struck down in May of 2023, instead focusing on its failed takeover of Spirit, showing that there really are no winners in this alliance — except the lawyers. Now, JetBlue wants some kind of tie-up with a big airline, and AA is still standing there like John Cusack with a boombox over its head, hoping things can work out.

AA is arguing that the ruling against them was misguided in that it would not have reduced competition as much as the court claimed. American says while it would reduce competition between itself and JetBlue, the combined entity would provide greater competition to Delta and United, a change that would ultimately benefit the consumer. That’s certainly a perspective of the situation — not necessarily a winning one, but it is a perspective.

While American’s chances here are slim — first it has to get the court to agree to hear the case and then get it to reverse the lower court’s decision — it does have a more favorable DOJ than the one that fought against the deal. What that means for the alliAAnce is still murky, but it does provide a brief light of hope for American should it succeed in getting the case taken up.

Silver’s Outlook Isn’t Golden

Silver Airways is still flying…for now..but if it were a patient in a hospital, its family would be flying in from out of town — hopefully on an airline other than Silver.

The carrier canceled all of its flights to and from Orlando as it beefs with its lessors over payments for several airplanes. This comes about two months after Silver stopped operating to Anguilla (AXA) in the Caribbean. TrueNoord — in addition to needing find spell check — changed course and abruptly took three airplanes back in bankruptcy proceedings. This is on top of other aircraft that had already left the fleet.

The carrier will continue to (try to) operate its schedule from Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and San Juan in the interim, using what remains of its fleet. What remains you ask? It’s got three ATR-42s and three ATR-72s it can rely on right now. It has two other ATR-72s sitting in Orlando that may or may not be part of the future plan.

For more on Silver’s tumutulous last few weeks, please visit yesterday’s post at crankyflier.com.

Allegiant Reduces LAX Presence

Allegiant is closing its crew base in Los Angeles and ending service to nine cities from the airport as it claims operating costs at the airport have gotten out of hand.

The base closure will become official on September 2 and will apply to both flight attendants and pilots. Affected staff will be given the opportunity to transfer bases or take a role working the pool deck at Allegiant’s Sunseeker resort in Florida.

The nine cities Allegiant will end from Los Angeles are a who’s-who of elite destinations including Billings, Des Moines, Kalispell, Laredo, Medford, Memphis, Pasco, Rapid City, and Rockford. Kalispell and Memphis are year-round destinations from LAX for Allegiant and will end in May. The remaining cities are summer-seasonal destinations that will not return.

Allegiant first opened its crew base in Los Angeles in 2009.

Frontier Moves into Paine Field

Seattle’s Paine Field has been a tricky frontier for airlines since the pandemic, with Frontier now taking swing at Seattle’s secondary airport — beginning flights to Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix from PAE this summer.

Service for Frontier will begin June 2 and operate 3x weekly on each of the three routes, giving Frontier double coverage on all three destinations from Seattle. In addition to these three, F9 also flies to Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Ontario, and Salt Lake City from SEA.

Paine Field reopened to commercial service in 2019 with flights from Alaska and United. During the pandemic, it was reduced to a single daily round trip on AS in May 2020. United left the airport in July 2021, leaving Alaska as the lone major carrier at the airport for until June when Frontier enters the fray.

Spirit Adds Two

Nothing says ‘Healthy Airline Emerging from Bankruptcy’ like adding service to major metropolitan markets that will garner the attention of local and national media. To that end, Spirit Airlines will be adding service to both Chattanooga and Columbia, SC this summer, beefing up its route map to two cities that were sorely missed by Spirit travelers.

From Chattanooga, Spirit will fly to two premium destinations and Newark. Fort Lauderdale and Orlando will see 4x and 3x weekly service, respectively, while the good people of the Scenic City will be forced to endure 4x weekly flights to Newark. Columbia will see flights to the same three cities, but will only have to deal with 3x weekly Newark flights, while MCO remains at 3x weekly — same as Chattanooga — and FLL will be at 4x weekly.

CAE will make three destinations for Spirit in both South Carolina and Tennessee — in SC, it added Charleston two years ago to its long term focus city in Myrtle Beach. While its Chattanooga service will complement current flights to both Memphis and Nashville.

• Air Astana is done flying E190-E2s.
• Air France might be tapping into TAP.
• Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran resigned.
• Air Serbia plans to grow its ACMI fleet this summer.
• Allegiant COO Keny Wilper resigned.
• ANA is growing its codeshare with Air India which includes AI moving Tokyo service from Narita to Haneda.
• Brussels increased profits last year.
• Condor will begin flying from Frankfurt to the so-called “Hawaiʻi of China,” Sanya — it’s first Chinese destination — this summer.
• Delta can’t get enough of Shake Shack apparently.
• El Al will increase its the share of security costs it pays back to the Israeli government.
• Emirates is adding three destinations in China.
• Etihad is considering a wet-lease agreement with Air Europa.
• Flair is ending seven U.S. routes.
• Frontier and Spirit are suing the DOT over the perimeter exemption slots awarded at DCA last year.
• Hawaiian is adjusting its schedule from Honolulu to Rarotonga.
• IndiGo is IndiGoing to Amsterdam and Manchester.
• JetBlue and friends are planning a refresh of JFK’s Terminal 5.
• Loganair is opening a new base in Southampton later this year.
• Lufthansa will take delivery of its first new B787-9 later this year.
• Mesa has taken its entire CRJ-900 fleet off the table.
• Norwegian is purchasing 10 of the B737-800s its currently leasing.
• Ryanair is going to 100% paperless boarding with no exceptions — except when it makes an exception.
• Sky Alps will be removing seven plays from the sky, presumably storing them in the Alps until maintenance certification concerns are rectified.
• Southwest VP of Cargo Wally Devereaux is retiring. As a going away gift he was presented with a box filled with U.S. mail, flowers, and fresh fish.
• Spirit received $150 million as compensation for Pratt’s ongoing engine issues. It’s also adding San Antonio’s first flight to the Caribbean.
• Sun Country FAs ratified a new contract.
• Turkish Airlines request for increased service to Canada was denied by the Canadian government.
• Virgin Australia named Dave Emerson its new CEO. It’s unclear if Dave has his eye on the Air New Zealand job.