Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK Airport: Indigo Reaches for the Sky, Alaska’s European Vacation

IndiGo Goes Towards SkyTeam

IndiGo — India’s largest airline — isn’t quite yet joining SkyTeam, but it might as well at this point. The carrier announced plans to build a partnership connecting India with both Europe and North America as it joins forces with Air France, Delta, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic.

Despite being India’s largest airline, IndiGo has primarily focused on domestic and regional flying, but it is showing a desire to grow on a more worldwide scale, with this new multicarrier tie-up as part of a broader strategy. The airline previously partnered with both Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic separately, but this agreement not only adds Delta to the mix but brings a cohesiveness to its operation.

In what is surely an unplanned coincidence, Delta also announced this week its plans to bring back its Atlanta to Delhi flight which will be its first flight to India from Atlanta since flying to Mumbai in 2009 and its first to India overall since 2019 when it started JFK-BOM and ended it almost as quickly as it began. Delta loves to talk about India, but it doesn’t love to actually send any airplanes there, so we’ll believe this when we see it.

Ciao, Alaska: Seattle to Rome On-Tap

Alaska Airlines’s debut service to Europe has been announced, and it’s a fun one. The carrier will begin 4x weekly service between its Seattle hub and Rome/FCO in May, operated on its fleet of B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

Europe has long seemed like an unlikely destination for the west coast-focused airline, but its acquisition of Hawaiian and its fleet of long-haul planes has brought flying over the Atlantic into a realistic possibility for the carrier. This is expected to be the first of several European destinations added to Alaska’s route map over the next several years, with most flights expected to operate from Seattle. That being said, the airline is not categorically ruling out the possibility of nonstop service from several of its Alaskan destinations, including totally real places like Adak, Cold Bay, King Salmon, and Utqiagvik.

United + Spotify: Because Nothing Says “Relaxing Flight” Like A Self-Help Podcaster Yelling at You at 35,000 Feet

United Airlines is teaming up with Spotify to bring over 450 hours — roughly enough to wait out your current ground delay thanks to Newark ATC — of curated content, including music, podcasts, and audiobooks to passengers on more than 680 aircraft equipped with 4K, Bluetooth-enabled seatback screens. This marks the first time Spotify’s audiobooks and video podcasts are available onboard an airline, featuring titles like Pod & Market and What’s Newark Got to Do With It?

Beginning next year, passengers will be able to log into their personal Spotify accounts directly through the seatback screens, allowing them to pick up where they left off on their favorite content . Additionally, Starlink-equipped aircraft, will allow travelers to stream Spotify content on their personal devices from gate to gate without interruption—free of charge—by logging into their MileagePlus accounts.

Virgin Australia Enters its IPO Era

Well, look who’s back on the ASX departure board. Virgin Australia, the airline that once fell into administration faster than a budget fare between Gold Coast and Kalgoorlie sells out, is now aiming for a US$2.3 billion valuation with an IPO launching at $443 million (roughly A$685 million or 2.3 billion ounces of Vegemite).

Shares are priced at A$2.90, with Bain Capital, the private equity firm that scooped up Virgin during its 2020 tailspin, cashing out about 30% of its stake and reducing its holding to 40%. Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is holding steady with a 23% share, proving that sometimes, loyalty extends beyond frequent flier miles.

Under Bain’s chokehold stewardship, Virgin shed its unprofitable ventures like Tigerair and long-haul routes, focusing instead on domestic travel and its Velocity loyalty program. The result? A leaner, more profitable airline that reported $439 million in half-year earnings. As it moves into this next phase, it will continue to function as the little brother in Australia’s commercial aviation duopoly, doing its best to challenge Qantas without upsetting the apple cart too much to let competent competitors — so… not Bonza — into the space.

JetBlue Teams Up with Brightline

It seems all you need these days to partner with JetBlue is to be a transportation company not named American Airlines. In that vein, the carrier announced a new air-and-rail partnership with Brightline to offer further connecting options for travelers in Florida.

JetBlue customers can now snag bundled tickets that slap a Brightline train ride onto their flight itinerary. It’s basically interlining, but with a train, and yes, it comes with the usual “if your flight’s late, we’ve got your back” promises. Orlando is the hub for this grand experiment — because nothing screams “perfect travel connection” like dragging your suitcase across three modes of transit in one day, drenched in sweat, on your way to see Mickey.

Despite the haughty press release, let’s not forget that Brightline, while shiny and new-ish, still hasn’t convinced most Floridians to abandon their beloved I-95 crawl. Even still, If JetBlue and Brightline can pull this off and get more travelers to skip the car and take the train it might make travel around Florida… tolerable? Naaaaaah.

• Air Baltic is expanding service, in well, the Baltics.
• Air India is adding service to Manila for what will surely be a major air corridor between India and the Philippines.
• Air Mauritius is expanding its codeshare partnership with Air India for service on the major air corridor between Mauritius and India.
• Air Zimbabwe is selling its two B777s. If you’re interested, please tell them Cranky sent you, as we get a 3% referral fee on the sale of all widebody aircraft.
• Alaska expects to turn a profit, according to the person who’s only job is to make sure Alaska turns a profit.
• Alitalia just won’t die.
• Emirates is returning to Syria on July 16.
• Icelandair is signing a codeshare with Air India for what is surely a major air corridor for travelers in Iceland and India.
• Philippine Airlines will receive its first A350-1000 later this year.
• Qantas has a new partner for frequent flier redemptions. It an unrelated story, CEO Vanessa Hudson has reportedly developed an affection for Spam.
• Riyadh Air has a new partner and it’s Air France-KLM. The announcement caught much of the industry off guard as the carrier has recently announced partnerships with both Delta and Virgin Atlantic, meaning absolutely no one saw this coming. IndiGo had no comment.
• Spirit turned 33.
• STARLUX is adding a codeshare with Etihad.
• United FAs are expected to get a raise.
• Wizz Air‘s annual report was not great.

My friend texted me today and it just said “Your great!”

I replied, “No, you’re great!”

He’s been walking around smiling all day since. Should I tell him I was just correcting his grammar?