American Buys Two ORD Gates from the Clearance Rack
American Airlines bought two gates from Spirit at Chicago/ORD as Spirit continues to look anywhere and everywhere for cash. Unfortunately for Spirit, the $30 million will not go toward its cash bottom line, but to help prepay debtor-in-possession loans.
AA, you’ll recall, lost four gates at ORD when the city reallocated gates earlier this year. United was the big winner of that process as it added five. American sued, and lost, to stop the allocation or to at least get an injunction to slow it down. This purchase from Spirit will allow it to claw back two of the four it lost — G8 and G10 specifically — but it won’t help AA in the next reallocation since that’s based on calendar-year 2026 flying.
This will reduce Spirit’s footprint at the airport from four gates to two, but the carrier recently cut its daily departures at the airport in half, so reducing its gate footprint by half does seem to be a proportional response. American officials said when gate agents took over the new space this week, they found several boxes of items meant to help with boarding, including nunchucks, brass knuckles, and mini-baseball bats. It is expected that American will now roll these out for use airport-wide.
JetBlue Prepares to Open First Lounge
JetBlue’s first lounge is expected to open on Thursday at New York/JFK in its Terminal 5 home. The lounge, which will be named BlueHouse, will be open daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and will be across from gate 526.
The lounge will weigh in at about 9,000 square feet with room for about 150 people throughout its two floors. JetBlue seems to have asked ChatGPT how to describe a new airport lounge, as it says the space is “a new benchmark for approachable hospitality,” describing it as “inviting, stylish, and uniquely JetBlue,” while boasting that the space is “designed to feel like an extension of home, inspired by the energy and character of New York City.” Why not just say, “it’s really great, come check it out.” From early photos and reviews, that doesn’t seem to be a lie.
It says the food in the lounge will be inspired by New York’s food scene to include bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches in the morning and chicken caesar wraps later on, which, thank god, because NYC is known as the only place on earth someone can get those delicacies.
Who can access this culinary wonderland? Customers flying in Mint to for from Europe (minty-fresh customers within the Americas can pay $39 for access to the only BEC sandwiches at the airport), Mosaic 4 members, and those who purchased JetBlue’s fancy new premium, $500 annual fee credit card. Happy lounging.
United Announces Dynamic MileagePlus Updates
United Airlines MileagePlus program will remain mostly unchanged next year as the thresholds required to achieve its various elite statuses remain the same. Elite members in the program will also be able to receive upgrades on award tickets beginning in February, a first for the carrier, with priority given to those flying in or out of Newark.
Perhaps the most dramatic change will be PlusPoints, its currency for top-tier elites to upgrade will shift from pre-determined to dynamic pricing in 2027. This shift will undoubtedly make most upgrades more expensive, while the carrier will surely focus on the small percentage of low-demand options that now can be upgraded at a reduced rate. Lastly, United says it will expand saver award availability making more opportunities for elite members and the “real” elite members (co-branded credit card holders) to access cheaper premium-cabin redemption opportunities.
Emerald Isle Meets the Steel City
Aer Lingus announced six new routes this week, five within Europe and one to the United States. The carrier will begin nonstop service to the fancy, shiny, renovated Pittsburgh International Airport beginning in May. The route will operate 4x weekly on an A321neo LR, flying year-round with the exception of darkest winter when it will take a brief break.
The Dublin flight will be the third transatlantic destination from PIT, joining London and Reykjavik. As for Aer Lingus, Pittsburgh will be its 24th destination in North America, but only the second to a city known for putting french fries on its sandwiches after Cleveland.
Other European additions for Aer Lingus include Asturias (Spain), Montpellier, and Oslo from Dublin along with Nice and Santiago de Compostela from Cork.
DOT Waves Final $11 Million Owed by Southwest
For Southwest, the 2022 holiday meltdown that left thousands stranded across the country and the airline with a mountain of bad press is finally over. The DOT is letting Southwest out of its final penalty payment imposed on the carrier in 2023.
The carrier was fined $140 million after it canceled between 15,000 and 20,000 flights following Winter Storm Elliott but will save the final payment which had been due next month. The government said the decision was based on Southwest’s $112 million investment in its Network Operations Control center and the XXL Edible Arrangement the carrier sent to DOT headquarters on the first of the month all year long.
- Aerolineas Argentinas faxed over an updated codeshare agreement with Abra group to include Avianca now.
- Air Algérie is restructuring.
- airBaltic is expanding its codeshare with Lufthansa.
- Alaska‘s SEA-LHR service will launch May 21 and be operated by a B787-9 dreamliner with 34 seats up front and 266 in the back.
- BA Cityflyer is adding three fancy destinations.
- Emirates is so impressed with Frontier’s Go Wild! pass that it is launching Asia Pass.
- Eurowings named Max Kownatzki its new CEO.
- IndiGo has had a bad couple weeks.
- Jin Air seeks a potential merger.
- KLM would like the Dutch government to establish a national SAF fund.
- Lufthansa Group unveiled its new brand identity on Wednesday, and it appears to be what any of us would get if we asked AI to make the most German-looking German brand identity as possible.
- Mango Airlines, which seemingly shut down four years ago, is close to actually shutting down.
- Oman Air‘s first new route of 2026 will be between Muscat and Taif.
- Pegasus Airlines of Turkey is spending $154 million to purchase Czech Airlines and Smartwings.
- Qantas began nonstop service from Perth to both Auckland and Johannesburg.
- Riyadh Air will launch as the world’s first AI-native airline. Whatever that means.
- SAS signed a new codeshare with WestJet.
- Spirit reached a $140 million agreement over GTF engines.
- Southwest is getting closer to opening lounges.
- Turkish opened a new lounge in Edinburgh, its first in Europe.
- Vietnam Airlines is getting into the freight game.
We got hit with a significant winter storm last weekend. As the snow started to accumulate I went next door to see if my 88-year old neighbor needed any supplies for the store or anything from the grocery store. She did, quite a lot actually.
So I gave her my list and told her I’d pay her back next week. No point in both of us going out in the storm.
