If at First You Don’t Succeed…Spirit Nears Bankruptcy Exit (Again)

Our long, yellow-painted, BuzzBallz-loving, ultra-low cost national nightmare just might be over…for now. Spirit announced it has “completed another significant milestone in its restructuring by reaching an agreement in principle on the key terms of a restructuring support agreement with its existing DIP lenders and secured noteholders.” We asked ChatGPT what that means and learned that Spirit “has made meaningful progress in its bankruptcy or financial restructuring process.” So congrats, Spirit. We think.

Key aspects of the new Spirit (not to be confused with the new Spirit that emerged after bankruptcy last year) include an optimized network, which begs the question why they were flying a non-optimized network all those years; more premium choices, which is great because when consumers think of Spirit, premium is often the first word that comes to mind; and stronger financials, which, yeah, that couldn’t really get worse.

For more on Spirit’s latest emergence from bankruptcy, please visit Thursday’s post on crankyflier.com.

American Sues JetBlue for $100 Million

Have you ever been in a brief relationship that once felt like he or she could be “the one” but you ended up being forced to break up due to a ruling from the Department of Justice leading your now ex to end up with one of your rivals, so you decide to sue them for $100 million? Heated Rivalry it is not. But Judge Jerry Bullard of the Texas Business Court in Fort Worth denied JetBlue’s request for dismissal forcing the case to move closer to trial. While it seems likely that this will end in a settlement and not actually end up in court, it’s definitely not a win for JetBlue.

The Texas court said it had jurisdiction because JetBlue “purposefully sought benefits” from the state of Texas, operated thousands of Texas flights under the alliance, employed personnel in the state, and leased airport property. Oh and also because the judge is an Executive Platinum on American, finds it very convenient to fly from his Fort Worth home, and “never really liked that JetBlue logo.”

American says its former partner failed to make contractual payments of about $1 million during the dissolution of the partnership, which it thinks entitles it to a $100 million verdict in court. Ok then.

Breeze Blows Into Two New Destinations

Breeze Airways will be adding two new airports to its stable this summer, with service beginning to Tallahassee on July 2, and Birmingham on July 3. Both cities will see service to both Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham with BHM operating 2x weekly and TLH 3x weekly.

As part of this expansion, Breeze is adding a grand total of 17 new flights, some of which go where people want to fly. Besides the four listed above, it will also add:

• Akron/Canton: Portland (ME) (2x weekly)
• Atlantic City: Tampa (2x weekly)
• Cincinnati: Greenville/Spartanburg, Portland (ME) (2x weekly on both)
• Columbus: Savannah, Tampa (2x weekly on both)
• Fort Lauderdale: Charleston (SC) (3x weekly), Greenville/Spartanburg (4x weekly), Jacksonville (1x daily), Salisbury (2x weekly), Tampa (13x weekly), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (2x weekly)
• Myrtle Beach: Pittsburgh (2x weekly)

American Plans MIA ExpAAnsion

What’s American to do with the $100 million it wants from JetBlue? Sounds like a good down payment on a $1 billion terminal expansion it has planned at its Latin American gateway in Miami. (Or it could just blow it all in Chicago…)

The plan is to reimagine Concourse D at the airport, perhaps in an attempt to keep up with the new Airside D at its neighbor and rival airport in Tampa to ensure it has the biggest D in Florida. The project is expected to begin next summer with completion in 2030, which seems… optimistic. Once completed, the three-level extension to Concourse D will feature 17 new gates which will have space for larger aircraft and jet bridge access for each.

The project will be focused around gate D60, currently a crowded, American Eagle-heavy gate that reminds many of the old gate 35X at DCA that left thousands of us scarred for life. The third-level access is crucial because that’s where it stores all of the unused American/JetBlue promotional materials… plus that’s where MIA’s CBP infrastructure is located, allowing international arrivals into the space.

Qantas Makes Seasonal Gamble on Las Vegas

This is a fun one. Qantas Airways’s newest U.S. destination is a surprise — it’s going to fly 3x weekly to Las Vegas during the northern winter, beginning on December 29 and continuing through March 12.

The eastbound flight is blocked at 13:55, departing Sydney at 9 p.m. and arriving five hours earlier than it left, at 3:55 p.m. You pay for it on the way back, as the 15:15 westbound flight will leave at 8:20 p.m. and arrive two days later at 6:35 a.m. This marks the first scheduled nonstop flight from Australia to Las Vegas, and it’ll be operated with a B787 Dreamliner. Qantas outfits these with 42 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, 166 economy seats, and four slot machines in the mid-galley that are only turned on when over Nevada airspace.

Vegas will be the 101st city in the Qantas route network and the 8th in the Americas, joining Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Santiago, and Vancouver. The city noted that in recognition of the inaugural, for one night only, on December 29, 2026, the famous Bellagio fountains are expected to spew Vegemite into the Lake of Dreams instead of water.

Qantas has operated charter flights on the SYD-LAS route during the National Rugby League’s annual kickoff in Las Vegas. This scheduled service will be timed to operate during the 2027 event and the annual CES in January.

• Air Astana is ordering 15 Dreamliners.
• Air Canada Rouge received its first B737-8 MAX from mainline AC.
• Air India‘s partnership with Lufthansa and friends is growing.
• Air New Zealand posted a loss in the first half of its fiscal year.
• Avelo is postponing its E2 deliveries into 2028.
• Bamboo Airways might lease some B737 MAX aircraft. Also it might not.
• EgyptAir is adding Chicago and resuming Los Angeles this summer from Cairo.
• Ethiopian is growing its domestic presence.
• flydubai will begin 2x daily service to Bangkok in September.
• Hilaac Air, the Somalian startup carrier of your dreams received its first Saab 340.
• JetBlue is ending service to both Asheville and Belize City, ending the dream of one-stop service from AVL-BZE through FLL on the airline.
• KLM reported €416 million of profit in 2025, which it clearly isn’t thrilled about considering the headline to its earnings said its 2025 performance was “stable.”
• Norse Atlantic is expecting a profitable 2026, according to the guy whose job depends on it having a profitable 2026.
• oneworld named former Finnair CCO Ole Orvér as its new CEO. He will start in his new role April 1. No foolin’.
• Qatar will cut summer capacity to its Doha base due to runway work being done at the airport. The airline plans to reduce schedules to provide the least disruption to customers except for you. Your flight will definitely be canceled and rebooked three days earlier or three days later, whichever is worse.
• PAL named José Maria Alvarado as its new regional head of sales for North America. He reportedly got the job because he was PALs with the hiring committee.
• Philippine Airlines plans to begin service to Chicago this summer. We have unconfirmed reports as of press time that both American and United are now considering opening 4x daily ORD-MNL service as retaliation.
• Virgin Australia was the most on-time airline in Australia for January.
• WestJet completed a trade with Boeing in which it gave up six future 737-10s for two future B787-9s, a 3rd round draft pick, and two tickets from Boeing’s season ticket allotment in Seattle with the Calgary Flames play the Kraken.

Friend 1: What do you do?

Friend 2: I race cars.

Friend 1: That’s great, do you win many races?

Friend 2: No, the cars are much faster.