Shutdown Ends, (Hopefully) Bringing Our Long, ATC National Nightmare to an End
One week after we posted in this space about DOT-mandated drawdowns of ATC capacity due to the ongoing government shutdown, we now begin the recovery from the unprecedented reduction in capacity. It was a rocky week in the domestic skies, with thousands of flights canceled, tens of thousands delayed, and countless freakouts at airline customer service agents who certainly were responsible for the mess and deserved the ire of passengers chock full of silver elite status.
The FAA will lift capacity restrictions as controller staffing recovers, it will take several days for each carrier’s networks to recover from the disruption and return to normal… assuming enough controllers actually come back to work. That’s the one advantage of flying American this month — you’ll be getting the same experience and on-time performance regardless of the shutdown, so everything will seem normal enough.
In addition to ATC staff, we hope that they — along with their TSA and CBP counterparts — and anyone else who worked over the last six weeks to keep the air travel system functioning for no pay receive their back pay quickly and without hassle. We also propose each person receive a gift basket containing a half gallon jug of POG juice flavored BuzzBallz, an 8-pack of Southwest’s old Salty Death Mix, a get-out-of-Newark-free card, and a key fob to provide access to Delta’s Biscoff tunnel.
Does a Window Seat Require a Window? United Says No
United Airlines is seeking to have a suit in San Francisco federal court dismissed that says it overcharged passengers when offering up “window seats” that contained no window, claiming that its designation of a window seat “cannot reasonably be interpreted as a promise that the seat will have an exterior window view,” which is just incredible. If United wins and gets the case thrown out, the possibilities are limitless. “Just because it said Hilo on your ticket, you can’t reasonably expect to end up there. Enjoy Newark.”
According to those who filed the lawsuit, passengers typically buy window seats to relieve the stress or fear of flying, get more light, watch the world go by from 30,000 feet, or to verify that the wing is still attached to the aircraft.
The class action lawsuit against both United and Delta says that customers would have chosen other seats had they known their window seat came without a window. Meanwhile Air France is laughing this one off on the way, playing 3D chess — their windows are so dirty you can’t see outside anyway.
Avelo Adds Six
Avelo Airlines is adding six new routes to places that someone, somewhere definitely might want to go to at some point, while also adding a second aircraft to its base in Lakeland and a third in Wilmington (DE).
Where’s Avelo flying? Thanks for asking. The two new routes from Wilmington (DE) are Atlanta (4x weekly) and Chicago/ORD (5x weekly). From Concord (when translated to Avelo, “Concord” means “Charlotte.”) it’ll fly to Chicago/ORD and Nashville (4x weekly on each), and from Lakeland to Atlanta (5x weekly) and Detroit (2x weekly).
The Detroit to Lakeland flights start in February, just in time for Tigers spring training in Lakeland, while the flights from Wilmington to Atlanta and Chicago are also scheduled to have someone fly on them eventually.
DHS Considered Aircraft Purchase from Spirit
The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security kicked the tires with Spirit about purchasing ten B737 aircraft to support its deportation efforts. Spirit, an airline which flies Airbus exclusively, did not sell the Boeing planes to the government as it can’t sell something it never had — and trust us, if it could, it would.
DHS recently purchased two Gulfstreams on behalf of the Coast Guard, but did not pursue this purchase any further when it discovered the planes it desired didn’t exist. Spirit is in the process of shedding dozens and dozens of aircraft as it attempts to slither its way out of bankruptcy and would have gladly considered the cash infusion that could have come from selling the airplanes to the government.
As it is, deportees being flown on Spirit will have to do it the old-fashioned way, by buying a ticket on Spirit’s website and playing seat assignment-roulette at check-in.
New Pacific Just Won’t Die, Goes to Infinity and BeOnd
BeOnd Airlines is an airline — sorta — that has two aircraft that it flies mostly to the Maldives, claiming to be the world’s first premium leisure airline. In truth, it’s about the 400th, but we won’t quibble. New Pacific, of course is also an airline — well, not really — but it’s got an Air Operating Certificate to operate in the United States, despite not having ever successfully launched anything in the United States or anywhere else.
Well, square peg, meet round peg, and the two can come together to try and fit through a triangle-sized hole. BeOnd wants to create a U.S.-based subsidiary, flying an all-business class airline, an idea that has never, ever worked in the U.S., and never will. But who are we to crush dreams, especially when it could give us so much content on this little space of the internet on Friday afternoons?
The gist is that New Pacific will operate eight aircraft — likely A319 and A321s — with Beond’s business class product on-board. While it does expect to look for charter business, it also has a goal of being a Part 121 operator, which would put it in competition with just a few airlines, maybe you’ve heard of them, such as American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United amongst many, many others. This is BeOnd crazy.
- Air Algérie received its first A330-900neo. You always remember your first.
- Air Canada Rouge is moving closer to an all MAX fleet.
- Air France‘s new La Premiere debuted Monday on a flight from Paris to Miami.
- Air France-KLM continues to look towards tapping into TAP.
- Alaska‘s new flight to Rome is available for sale.
- Allegiant named CFO Robert (BJ) Neal as its new president.
- BermudAir is done with Hartford after just seven months.
- British Airways is going to do just fine on Transatlantic flying, according to the guy who’s paycheck is directly tied to the airline making money on Transatlantic flying.
- Cathay Pacific is resuming seasonal service to Adelaide.
- Emirates will operate a third daily flight to Nairobi beginning in March.
- Etihad might be buying some Airbus aircraft. Of course it also might not be.
- Finnair is investing nearly $3 billion in its short-haul fleet for people who want to leave Finland but not go too far.
- Icelandair is laying off staff.
- IndiGo is are growing its cooperation in Guangzhou with China Southern.
- JetBlue will be giving the people of Orlando the non-stop connectivity with Rochester (NY) they’ve been yearning for for generations.
- JSX took delivery of its first ATR 42.
- LATAM has some pilots on strike.
- LOT will begin flying to San Francisco quite a lot. 4x weekly, in fact.
- PIA is refuting claims its management team is incompetent. Well, ball don’t lie.
- Qatar is growing its presence in Saudi Arabia.
- Ryanair is back in court challenging state aid.
- SKY Airline is seeking regulatory approval to join ABRA group, the venture between both Avianca and Gol.
- TAP Air Portugal is official airline of Team Portugal. It beat out Aeroflot and Interflug for the honor.
- TAROM is receiving $26 million in emergency aid from the Romanian government. Ryanair will certainly challenge them in court at some point.
- Turkish reported record $1.1 billion Q3 profits.
A truck loaded with Vicks Vaporub overturned on the highway. Amazingly, there was no congestion for 8 hours.
