United’s Newest European Adventure

United’s annual summer route announcement came down this week and it’s a doozy. Four new destinations for the carrier next year will be Bari (BRI), Glasgow (GLA), Santiago de Compostela (SCQ), and Split (SPU) plus there will be additional flying to existing cities.

All four new cities had to agree to have their new United service from Newark in exchange for being added to United’s route map. Win some, lose some. All four are summer seasonal service, with Glasgow flying daily, Bari 4x weekly, and Santiago de Compostela and Split going 3x each week.

UA will also add two new routes to cities it already flies too, connecting Newark with Seoul/ICN and Washington/Dulles with Reykjavik/KEF. Both GLA and SCQ will be operated by the B737 Max 8, Bari and Split will be flown on B767-300ERs, Reykjavik will be a B757-200, Seoul will be flown on a B787-9, and Newark Airport sightseeing flights will be flown by vultures looking for dead rats to eat down below.

For more, read this recent Cranky post.

Delta Posts Strong Q3 Financials

Delta Air Lines’s Q3 earnings report was a good one for the Widget, as the carrier exceeded its quarterly profit expectations and forecasted a stronger than previously-expected finish to the year.

As is the case for most airlines, it’s the pointy end of the plane that’s filling Delta’s coffers, as premium revenue shined during the quarter. Overall, Delta’s Q3 profit rose 11%, up to $1.7 billion on the basis of $5.8 billion in premium revenue (up 9%) and $6 billion in main cabin revenue (down 4%). Domestic unit revenue grew for Delta about 2% on a 4% capacity jump marking a happy change of fortune in the domestic market. Gross revenue ended up at a cool $16.7 billion, a significant portion of which came from frequent fliers paying $9.99 per segment to opt out of Delta’s 100th anniversary-themed safety video.

Looking forward, it expects to run an operating margin between 10.5 and 12% in Q4 with a 2 – 4% revenue increase. Delta closes September just shy of $4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and biscoff futures.

Hawaiian’s New Operating Code is a Pain in the AS

Hawaiian Airlines’s HA operating airline code can see the light at the end of the tunnel as Alaska begins the process of winding it down in favor of its own AS code. Later this month, Hawaiian flights will switch to a different flight number range between 800 and 1299 in preparation for the big switch on April 22, 2026.

Neighbor island flights will be numbered HA1000-1299 while flights to the mainland and international destinations will be numbered HA800-999. Starting April 22, the marketing flight numbers will stay the same, but they will swap operating airlines — meaning HA900 will be operated by AS900. Confused? You are not alone.

That April date is when Hawaiian’s Amadeus reservation system will be retired and everything will be consolidated on the single Alaska Sabre system. We’re not saying not to book an Alaska flight on April 22, but do with that information what you wish.

Southwest Opens Summer Schedule

In addition to last week’s announcement that it will begin flying to Anchorage starting May 15, Southwest Airlines summer 2026 schedule features new flights and increased frequencies across its map as customers brace for a summer of flying with reserved seat assignments.

Las Vegas will see new service to three destinations in Mexico: Cancún, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta. As part of the opening of San Diego’s new T1, the carrier will begin San Diego – Boston service in June and will increase its daily SAN-SFO frequencies to eight. Austin is getting new service to Cincinnati for hipsters who prefer their chili over a bowl of spaghetti, while AUS will see its seasonal service to Seattle return, Indianapolis flights to increase to 3x daily, and San Francisco to 2x daily.

This and more frequency shifts will begin June 4 — as will all of the non-Anchorage new service.

EAS Receives $41 Million Lifeline

The Essential Air Service program was set to run out of money this weekend provided the government shutdown continues, but $41 million will allow it to continue for several more weeks before facing another budget crunch. The five people in Muskegon who were impacted were said to be cheering moderately at this development.

If the shutdown continues and the funding is exhausted, the federal government will suspend the contractual obligations of airlines flying EAS routes and the reimbursements for the flights. The program currently services 169 communities, including 40 in Alaska, some of which are actual places and some of which might be made up.

The government has not confirmed where the $41 million magically appeared from, but highly-placed DOT sources tell us the money came from a combination of a sale by TSA of all oversized toothpaste tubes collected at checkpoints and a yard sale consisting of everything left in the unclaimed baggage room at several airports on the east coast.

• Aegean added a new ATR 72-600 to the fleet of its subsidiary Olympic Air.
• Air Astana CEO will step down from the role in March and be replaced by current Executive VP Ibrahim Canliel.
• Air India is launching an interline agreement with STARLUX.
• Air Sierra Leone chose Flymingo Box to provide wireless in-flight entertainment. Good information for the next time you fly Air Sierra Leone.
• American is introducing its own version of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ when it comes to carry-on sizing.
• BermudAir is tripling down on flying to New York and its surrounding airports.
• Brussels Airlines is being added to Lufthansa’s JV with Singapore.
• Caribbean Airlines is ending service from both Kingston and Montego Bay to Fort Lauderdale.
• Emirates opened the Emirates Centre of Hospitality Excellence to train cabin crew. Reportedly it offered American a spot at the Centre for Excellence and it was laughed out of the room.
• Frontier added a couple.
• Garuda Indonesia is receiving a $1.8 billion cash infusion from the Indonesian government.
• IndiGo will begin nonstop service later this month between Mumbai and London/Heathrow, marking its second destination in the UK.
• JAL plans to end international narrowbody operations by 2030. It’s also going to fly to Delhi, beginning in January.
• JSX has 50 planes now. It celebrated with a fauxback livery.
• Kuwait Airways wrote off nearly a billion in losses. As Kramer once said, they just write it off.
• Qantas is expanding its partnership with Oman Air.
• Riyadh Air‘s inaugural flight will be on October 26, but good luck getting a ticket.
• Serene Air in Pakistan was grounded due to a lack of calming aircraft.
• SkyTeam is expanding Elite Plus lounge access to domestic itineraries. Except if you’re flying Delta. Don’t even think about it, people.
• Southwest settled a class action.
• Sun Country received a $108 million loan.
• Thai announced its unveiling Premium Economy Plus which isn’t quite Premium Economy and isn’t Business Class.
• United will be the first carrier to support Apple’s fancy new boarding pass option.
• Vietnam Airlines signed a codeshare agreement with Singapore Airlines.

When I was a kid, I’d go to the grocery store with my parents and the store always played boring music that only my parents liked. But now that I’m an adult, the grocery store finally stopped playing that stuff and now plays good music.