If you’re interested in China, this week’s episode of The Air Show is for you. Even if you’re not, you’ll find this walkthrough from Jon Ostrower fascinating. Don’t believe me? There’s only one way to find out… have a listen for yourself.
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American Breaks Up with JetBlue — This Time for Real
American’s on-again, off-again relationship with JetBlue has taken many twists and turns since the pair announced their Northeast Alliance nearly five years go — but the breakup of the two finally appears to be complete. The relationship ended where so many marriages end across the world — in court.
AA is suing JetBlue in the Business Court of Texas to “recover money owed” by JetBlue following the breakdown of the NEA. A spokesperson said that the carrier “continued to work collaboratively with American to wind down the NEA,” and later went on to say that it was hoping for a change of venue to the Business Court of Long Island, which is located next to a bodega in Nassau County right down the road from that one deli and the pizza shop that’s been open for decades but never has any customers inside.
The carrier is seeking more than $1 million in damages from JetBlue. B6 countered with an offer of $50k and six (capacity-controlled) Mint upgrade vouchers, but American declined.
JetBlue and United Potentially Consider Partnership
Neither carrier will confirm that they are — in fact — going steady, but several students reported seeing the two holding hands under the bleachers before 5th period earlier this week.
United declined to comment on a report that it was considering a partnership, saying it does not comment on industry speculation, which begs the question of what speculation it will comment on? Celebrity gossip? MLB trade rumors? JetBlue referred to comments made by president Marty St. George on its earnings call Tuesday where St. George said the carrier is “negotiating with a domestic carrier with a broader network.” For an analysis of why that domestic carrier is most likely United, please visit yesterday’s post on crankyflier.com.
What makes JetBlue desirable for United? Besides the stores of ancient blue chips it has in its Long Island City headquarters, JetBlue also has a heap of slots at New York/JFK that could not only get United back into the airport, but assert it as an almost major(ish) player there, giving customers an alternative to the hell that is Newark.
JetBlue is More Like JetRed After Q1 Loss
JetBlue’s Q1 earnings report showed a loss of $208 million for the carrier on $2.1 billion gross revenue, a 3% dip from last year.
Its RASM went up 1.3% from last year to 13.71 cents while its CASM declined to 14.83 cents — both trending in the right direction, but not enough as an airline typically wants its RASM to be higher than its CASM. Much of the drop in costs can be attributed to fuel, which costs the carrier over 18% less than last year which was due to CEO Joanna Geraghty finally being able to update the phone number former CEO Robin Hayes used to earn pump rewards with the carrier’s Jet-A provider, allowing it to again reap the rewards of discounts when filling up.
The carrier closed the quarter with a total liquidity of $3.8 billion which included cash, Robert Isom voodoo dolls, and a gorgeous array of tulips that came from an unknown florist on Wacker Drive in Chicago.
Frontier’s Record Q1 Still Ends in Net Loss
Frontier Airlines earned a company record for Q1, reporting $912 million in gross revenue, a 5% leap over last year. Despite this increase, Frontier lost $46 million during the period as its $958 million in expenses jumped 7% from the same period in ’24.
F9’s revenue growth was led in part by a 5% bump in capacity and a 12% increase in flights — but its total revenue per passenger dropped 6% down to $116.33. Its RASM held mostly equal from last year while load factor made a slight increase to 75% from just shy of 73% last year. The carrier grew its fleet during the quarter by four airplanes — up to 163 now — and it will sign an affidavit that they were all received before the 10% tariff on Airbus aircraft began.
Looking forward, Frontier expects another net loss in Q2, and reduced its planned capacity for the rest of the year. Despite this, its liquidity remains solid with Frontier having $889 million in the bank, including $684 million worth of unrestricted cash, an enterprise-level subscription to National Geographic, and a copy of this book.
Why Don’t They Make the Whole Plane Out of the Black Box? Delta Sends Airbus Deliveries to Japan
Delta has no intention on paying tariffs on new aircraft it receives from Airbus –although why limit it to just Airbus? It likely has a plan in place were it to place an order with COMAC or Tupolev as well. Anyhow, back on this planet, it still has A350-900s on order from Airbus, one of which — N428DN — will be delivered to the carrier from Toulouse tomorrow morning.
But instead of sending the new plane to Atlanta or New York, it will instead make the long journey to Tokyo. When the plane eventually arrives in the U.S. it will have already operated a commercial flight out of the country, meaning it will skirt the legal definition of a new aircraft and will not be subject to the 10% tariff. Delta did this same thing six years ago during a spat between Airbus, European government, and the WTO which led to potential tariffs then as well.
How long this loophole will stay open is unclear, but it does seem that Delta will be happy sending its new aircraft to Japan and other non-U.S. destinations first, to save 10% on each delivery and to get a 50% off coupon on all Hello Kitty merchandise.
- Air Canada has fast, free, and fancy new WiFi on most of its flights.
- Air France-KLM ended down €328 million in Q1 on €7.2 billion gross revenue.
- Alaska‘s newest partner is Philippine Airlines, making it the first North American partner for PR.
- American announced an expansion of Terminal F at DFW and showed off its first fancy new 787.
- Delta would prefer its FAs not unionize.
- Fastjet Mozambique is finally coming back, so you can stop worrying about it.
- Finnair is furloughing pilots.
- Icelandair will wind down its widebody operation.
- JetBlue has new snacks.
- Lufthansa still expects to earn a profit for the year despite a rocky start.
- Oman Air is downsizing.
- Qantas is flying to Port Moresby again — the first time it will operate to the capital of Papua New Guinea since the 70s.
- Royal Jordanian reported a full-year operating profit.
- South African is growing its fleet.
- United is growing its Polaris lounge footprint.
- Virgin Atlantic is ending service to Israel.
- Volotea is looking for make goods from the Air Europa sale.
I was told that in order to open my new zoo I had to have at least two pandas, two grizzlies, three brown, one kodiak, and one koala.
That’s the bear minimum.
9 comments on “Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK Airport: JetBlue Makes All the News”
I feel like the story of Delta and its flight attendants wanting to unionize has been a constant since the NW merger. IIRC, Delta flight attendants make more than their unionized competitors. Why would you jeopardize that?
That’s certainly a very effective way of fending off unionization!
My thoughts exactly. I was under the impression the legacy-NW flight attendants were more pro-union than their counterparts. The further we are removed from the merger (i.e. as more legacy-NW FAs retire…), I would expect less union chatter. I guess we’ll see but this has already been shot dead a handful of times now
That bit of “levity” was almost un-bear-able. LOL
The Alaska-Philippine deal looks interesting. Given that it says we’ll be able to book flights on PAL via Alaska’s website, I assume there will be a code share? If so, do these codeshares usually apply for through journeys (for example, Seattle to HKG via MNL)? I honestly don’t remember on the few of the other international codeshares that I’ve flown.
If it is a codeshare, using an AS flight number, could this credit to a Oneworld partner like AA?
Apologies in advance if this is basic, I just don’t know.
Code shares can apply to through journeys where a connection is made; if the ticket is booked on Alaskan’s website, you will earn miles as if you flew on their metal.
I’m struggling to understand the grammar of the sentence about Volotea…. perhaps you could rephrase ?
A “make good” is typically something of value given (could be money) for a failure to deliver on something contractually – similar to a remedy. In advertising, if we failed to run an ad or targeted the wrong folks with that ad, the advertiser would demand a “make good” which is an opportunity to correct the mistake without us having to refund the money.
@cranky, with Jetblue having a good balance sheet and trending in the right direction, but yet still with losses, how much do you think with United strong position the jetblue execs are in serious talk with united aquring jet blue, its clear they want what Jetblue has, JFK, Florida, primarily, and a big order book of new NEO’s since United cancelled the Max10 from boeing. And\ majority of Star alliance are at JFK will be utilizing T6 next door to Jetblue which they have access to future gates as well. I can’t imagine United is seeing this as the best time to make this move. Also, Ichan is buddies with Trump, he may make a favor to not get in the way.