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The Air Show is back in action after your late summer break. This week, we tackled the topic you’ve all been waiting for: what is wrong with American Airlines. We go a little more granular this week with a look at the network and fleet, and not all of us agree on what American should be doing. But it’s clear American needs to be doing something. This is just part 1. We have a lot more to say in a future episode.

Spirit Plans Spirited Retreat From 11 Cities

In solidarity with last Friday’s bankruptcy filing, Spirit will pull out of 11 cities effective October 2. Good thing for the airline that bankruptcy reorganizations fall under Chapter 11 and not Chapter 32 or it would have had to cook up 21 more cities to leave.

The 11 cities losing bright yellow airplane service packed with BuzzBallz and good vibes are:

• Albuquerque
• Birmingham
• Boise
• Chattanooga
• Columbia (SC)
• Oakland
• Portland (OR)
• Sacramento
• Salt Lake City
• San Diego
• San Jose (CA)

Oh, and that shiny new Macon route? Yeah, canceled before it even took off. Spirit calls it a “network adjustment,” but let’s be real– it’s the airline equivalent of clearing out your storage unit and selling off the futon.

This is Spirit’s second Chapter 11 in under a year, which makes you wonder if it’s less an airline and more a financial performance art piece. At this point, Spirit’s “network” is looking more like Swiss cheese, and if you were counting on that $39 fare from Boise to Oakland, congratulations — you’re gonna love Southwest and spoiler alert — it won’t be $39 anymore.

United Smells Blood, Spars with Spirit

United Airlines announced a winter expansion on Thursday, beefing up service to 15 cities, and its reason for doing so is, well, amazing.

United is adding an additional daily round trip between Houston/IAH and Atlanta, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, and New Orleans; between Chicago/ORD and Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Orlando; between Newark and Orlando and Fort Lauderdale; and Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The carrier is adding two new routes from Newark: Chattanooga and Columbia (which is great, because United has never gotten into trouble for flying between Newark and Columbia). It’s also adding three new weekly flights between Houston/IAH and both Guatemala City and San Salvador and one extra weekly frequency from IAH to San Pedro Sula. Lastly, it’s increasing frequencies between IAH, ORD, and LAX, and flying larger aircraft between ORD and New York/LGA.

Now why is United going to all this trouble? Because it sees the writing on the highlighter yellow wall. United senior vice president of Global Network Planning and Alliances Patrick Quayle said in the airline’s release that

“If Spirit suddenly goes out of business it will be incredibly disruptive, so we’re adding these flights to give their customers other options if they want or need them.”

To its own credit, Spirit did respond as senior vice president of corporate communications Duncan Dee told Reuters

“While we appreciate the obsession certain airline executives have with us, we’re focused on competing and running a great operation,” Suggesting anything else is wishful thinking on the part of a high-cost airline looking to eliminate a low-cost competitor so they can fulfill their ultimate goal of charging American travelers the highest fares possible to visit the people and places they love.”

We assume this is a real quote, but because it doesn’t reference Spirit customers as “Guests” with a capital “G” as every official Spirit communication generally does, we cannot confirm or deny its validity.

Frontier Adds 22 New Routes and One New Frontier

Frontier continues to do its thing, taking the fight right to Spirit — just not as overtly as United — adding 22 new routes in November and December, plus new service to Providenciales and a return to Nassau.

Amazingly, there’s one route that will operate daily — Washington/Dulles to San Salvador — with the rest mostly flying the Frontier Special at 1x or 2x weekly. Besides IAD – SAL, other new routes for Frontier include:

• Atlanta: Memphis (2x weekly), Milwaukee (2x weekly), Los Cabos (weekly), Nassau (weekly), Providenciales (weekly), Puerto Vallarta (weekly), St Maarten (weekly)
• Dallas/Fort Worth: Guatemala City (weekly), San Salvador (2x weekly)
• Las Vegas: Los Cabos (weekly)
• Miami: San Pedro Sula (weekly), San Salvador (3x weekly)
• Minneapolis/St Paul: Chicago/ORD (2x weekly)
• New York/LGA: San Juan (weekly)
• Orlando: Guatemala City (2x weekly), San Jose (CR) (weekly), San Pedro Sula (weekly), San Salvador (weekly)
• Philadelphia: Santiago (DR) (2x weekly)
• Phoenix: Reno, Spokane (2x weekly on both)

Southwest: Wi-Fi On the House, JetBlue: Wi-Fi with Two-Day Shipping (Maybe)

Starting October 24, Southwest is unlocking free Wi-Fi…but only if you’re a Rapid Rewards member. Provided you are, you get the privilege of scrolling Instagram for free while waiting for the airspace around New York to clear. Those who are Rapid Rewards holdouts? They can still cough up $8, which feels like paying cover at a dive bar that serves lukewarm beer.

Of course, “free Wi-Fi” on an airline is like “free puppies” in a Craigslist ad — sure, it’s free, but you never know what you’re actually getting. Southwest swears the service will be gate-to-gate, but between spotty satellites and half the plane logging in to at once, don’t expect fiber-optic miracles. Still, it’s a win for passengers, because nothing says “transformation” like being able to complain about Southwest’s charging you for a checked bag on social media live from 19A — the seat you were assigned by The Man.

Meanwhile, JetBlue announced it’s partnering with small business owner Jeff Bezos to use his Project Kuiper to provide faster, free in-flight Wi-Fi for customers, beginning in 2027. JetBlue will be the first carrier to partner with Amazon’s satellite connectivity project, a low Earth orbiting satellite cluster that provides lower latency and more reliable service similar to Starlink, all the while also spying on most of us and listening to our conversations — at no additional charge.

This new era of Fly-Fi, JetBlue’s minty-fresh branded in-flight internet access, will provide customers with fast, reliable internet still at no charge — a welcome respite from the dark ages of in-flight connectivity where you either paid $20 for dial-up speeds or watched the loading bar freeze somewhere over Scranton.

WestJet’s Big Shopping Day

WestJet spent a busy week at the SkyMall, announcing it secured an order with Boeing for 67 airplanes with options for as many as 29 more. The order consists of 60 B737-10 MAX aircraft with an option for 25 more, seven B787-9 Dreamliners with options for four more, and three Tim Horton’s BOGO coupons, redeemable only at Tim Horton’s locations in the U.S.

The order increases WestJet’s current order book to 123, with options for 40 more, with deliveries scheduled through 2034.

This marks WestJet’s largest airline order in its history, and the largest-ever single order for Boeing from a Canadian company, both of which are impressive considering WestJet usually needs a parent or guardian to co-sign the loan just to upgrade its on-board internet. Upon hearing that its rival scored the largest Boeing order in Canadian history, Air Canada responded the only way it knows how — by filing a complaint with the Canadian competition bureau and then misplacing half the paperwork in checked baggage.

• Air Algérie will debut its first A330neo later this year, a moment we’ve all been waiting for.
• Air Côte d’Ivoire took delivery of its first A330neo as Airbus continues its quest to dominate secondary African countries.
• Aer Lingus turned a tidy profit in Q2.
• Air New Zealand firmed up its option on two additional B787-10s.
• airBaltic expanded its summer 2026 network.
• Avelo is reportedly pulling out of Portland (ME), but this could also just be someone confused about the airline leaving Salem near Portland (OR). But probably not.
• Copa signed an interline agreement with WestJet.
• Emirates reopened its lounge at Milan/MXP.
• Etihad is swimming in cash dollars.
• Jetstar was hit with a $1.3 million fine in New Zealand, and those are real US dollars, not those fake ones down under.
• Lufthansa is bracing for a potential pilot strike.
• Nok Air had its international operation suspended by the Thai government.
• Qantas will extend it Perth – Rome/FCO flight though October 23, operating at 4x weekly at its peak.
• Royal Jordanian will fly year-round 4x weekly Dreamliner service from Amman to Dallas/Fort Worth beginning in May.
• SAA‘s pan-African alliance with Kenya Airways is like a Spirit flight to Macon — cancelled before it started.
• Sun Country pilots filed notice to open contract negotiations.
• TAP is seeking $815 million for a 44.9% stake in the carrier currently owned by the Portuguese government.
• Turkish is going to fly to Dublin this winter.
• Virgin Australia took delivery of its first of eight E190-E2s.
• Wizz Air‘s move into Tel Aviv is being met with resistance from Israeli carriers.

At the age of 65 my Grandma started walking 10 miles a day. She’s 92 now and we have no idea where she is.