No, The Air Show did not do part 2 of the American Airlines saga. We needed more time to put that together. This week we talk about Spirit and its dire prospects. Brian and I try to think of ways that the airline doesn’t fail. There aren’t many.
JetBlue‘s Spirited FLL Expansion
In what can only clearly be described as yet another coincidence as Spirit continues to circle the drain, JetBlue Airways announced an expansion in Fort Lauderdale this week, adding nine new (and returning routes), and beefing up frequencies on another nine. This expansion gives JetBlue 113 peak daily flights from FLL to 46 cities this fall.
What’s new? Thanks for asking.
- Cali
- Liberia
- San Pedro Sula
Cali is a new city overall for JetBlue while Liberia and San Pedro Sula are new to Fort Lauderdale for the carrier.
What’s returning? Another great question.
- Aruba
- Cartagena
- Grand Cayman
- New Orleans
- Pittsburgh
- St Maarten
And lastly, what’s being beefed up? We thought you’d never ask.
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Cancún
- Hartford
- Kingston
- Punta Cana
- San José (CR)
- San Juan
- Santiago (DR)
In case you were wondering, all of these routes except for Liberia overlap with Spirit. What a coincidence indeed.
Avelo Jumps Into Deep End of Embraer Pool
Avelo Airlines dropped a significant order for 50 Embraer E195-E2 jets, plus options on another 50, making itself the U.S. launch customer for the aircraft type. The rack rate for these airplanes? Just a cool $4.4 billion, but of course the next time an airline pays the sticker price for a large aircraft order will be the first. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2027 and will begin a shift from the all B737 fleet the carrier operates today.
Avelo believes the E195-E2 is ideal for its current growth strategy thanks to its 2×2 seating, big(ger) overhead bins, in-seat power, quiet(er) cabins, and short-field takeoff capabilities. That means Avelo can slip into airports bigger jets can’t, say San Salvador or the small airstrips in the Mexican countryside, for instance. The announcement comes just two days after Avelo announced it had completed “a new round of significant growth capital to support its continued expansion across the United States and the Caribbean,” proving airlines are just like us — buying shiny new toys just as soon as the check clears in to our bank account.
Allegiant Adds a Handful
Allegiant announced three new nonstop routes and added one new destination to its route map, launching service early next year, with a February 12 start date for each.
The new city for Allegiant will be Burbank, with the southern California airport seeing service to both Bellingham and Provo, giving Breeze something of a brushback for its post-Avelo Burbank adventure which includes Provo service.
And low and behold, there’s a new route from Fort Lauderdale as Allegiant continues to join the many picking at Spirit’s carcass, with the popular corridor between south Florida and Chattanooga finally being served by the carrier.
This may come as a shock — but the routes will operate 2x or 3x weekly, with FLL-CHA and BUR-BLI going twice-weekly, and Burbank to Provo operating 3x weekly, which is the Allegiant version of hourly shuttle service.
Aloha Means Hello and Goodbye
There will be a shakeup at the top of Hawaiian Airlines next month when CEO Joe Sprague retires and his replacement, Diana Birkett Rakow takes over the top spot at the carrier.
Birkett Rakow joined Hawaiian’s parent company, Alaska, eight years ago as Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Sustainability, and the less well-known role of Shadow Minister of Alaskan/Hawaiian relations. Sprague spent 25 years at Alaska, and was CEO of Hawaiian for the last 12 months, but found the warm weather and tropical breezes of Honolulu to be too much — apparently he longed for a return to the darkness of a Seattle winter in his well-earned retirement.
Alaska also promoted Kyle Levine, its general counsel, to the role of Executive Vice President, Corporate and Public Affairs. That’s a fancy job title for someone who’s only job will be to shill Atmos Rewards credit cards on Waikiki Beach.
Thai to Increase Premium Focus by Eliminating First Class
Thai Airways announced its intention to refocus on its premium class offering by eliminating first class and limiting itself to just three classes — business, premium economy, and poor people.
In reality, Thai is doing what many other carriers have done the world over, basically rename what they offered a generation ago — your parent’s first class is now business, business class of that era is now premium economy, and coach is still, well, coach. To further illustrate how it’s basically just turning business into first, Thai has already introduce the holy grail of first class service for most bloggers — caviar — in its business class cabin. And much like U.S.-based carrier are rolling out, it will make the first row of its business class enhanced over the rest of the cabin, creating what is, essentially, first class.
While it’s not moving deck chairs on the Titanic, it’s akin to moving chairs around on something. Call it first, call it business, call it business+, just get us there on-time.
- Air Algérie plans to double its African routes in three years. Maybe.
- Air Astana announced a codeshare with Air India. Finally.
- Air Canada will fly from Montréal to Mallorca 4x weekly next summer, as it debuts its fancy new A321XLR.
- AirAsia Philippines reopened its Cebu hub.
- American will join Breeze and JetBlue in Vero Beach, beginning February 1.
- Avelo has seen enough between Wilmington (NC) and Houston/Hobby.
- Belavia saw its sanctions in the U.S. lifted.
- China Southern expanded its codeshare agreement with Qatar.
- Hungary Airlines is flying to China for the first time.
- Icelandair is leasing two new A321LR’s, new airplane smell and all.
- Korean is delaying the close of the purchase of its stake in WestJet to early next year.
- LATAM announced pricing for its new equity offering.
- Lufthansa‘s takeover of ITA could come sooner than originally thought.
- Maldivian‘s new headquarters will open by the end of this year, letting us all breathe easier.
- Qatar isn’t interested in Air Mauritius. Pinky swear.
- JetBlue raised its Q3 outlook.
- JetBlue Ventures is now Sky VC, a considerably worse name.
- Southwest is adding service to Santa Rosa Airport in Sonoma County.
- T’way Air w’ill end a proud era in the history of the Cranky Weekly Review when it r’ebrands to T’rinity A’irways in 2026.
- United Nigeria Airlines is purchasing aircraft from Southwest.
- Wizz Air will begin flying to Gyumri (LWN) later this year. And apparently that’s a real place. Vienna is definitely a real place, but that didn’t sway Wizz, and the carrier will end service to VIE next spring.
Yesterday my wife thought she saw a cockroach in the kitchen, so she sprayed everything down and cleaned thoroughly.
Tomorrow I’m putting the cockroach in the bathroom.
