United Shows Off Its New Toys at Media Day
United Airlines held a media day this week, and it rolled out its fanciest new airplanes, including a surprise glow-up on even the lowly CRJ200.
In all, United will take on 250 new airplanes in the next two years, with the idea that if it takes all the capacity in Chicago, it might as well take all the airplanes also.
The carrier said it plans to take delivery of:
- 47 B787-9 Dreamliners with the so-called Elevated interior (33 of which will have 99 premium seats with the rest at a mere 83)
- 40 A321neo Coastliners out of 50 total on order which, to be clear, will fly between the coasts and will not actually “coast” through the sky
- 41 CRJ450s which are a 41-seat, dual-class version of the CRJ200
- 28 A321XLR out of 50 total on order to fly primarily shorter European flights run by the B757 today
- 119 B737 MAX which might even include the -10 when/if it ever gets certified
- 18 A321neos in the regular configuration which sounds really boring after all those other airplanes
A spokesperson for every other airline on earth said they would collectively be waiting until 2028 to be able to take delivery of a plane again.
United detailed the order in its press release in a performance of PR-speak that even the North Korean Information Ministry would be impressed with. The CRJs are described as having a private jet experience for those traveling in first, while the A321 XLRs had three seats taken out to include a snack bar at the back of the plane, a clear dig at American’s configuration on the same airplane. We’re so confident that’ll last until the next economic downturn that we’ve pre-written the “United Removes Snack Bar to add seats to A321s” story, so it’s in the can for when the time comes.
For more on media day, see yesterday’s post on crankyflier.com.
JetBlue Keeps Growing FLL While Rumors Swirl
The rumor mill was busy this week as it was reported that JetBlue had hired advisors to investigate being sold to Alaska, Southwest, or United. (Obvious candidate American, we should note, was notably absent from that list.) But while rumors spread like wildfire, JetBlue is just doing what it does best… growing Fort Lauderdale like crazy.
JetBlue announced this week that starting in July, it will finally fulfill the dreams of all South Florida residents by beginning daily nonstop service from FLL to Cleveland. In addition, it will increase frequencies from sub-daily to once daily on the far less exciting routes to Aruba, Norfolk, and St Maarten. But wait, there’s more. JetBlue will also add an extra daily flight to this laundry list of cities:
- Atlanta
- Jacksonville
- Las Vegas
- Newark
- Philadelphia
- Santo Domingo
This spirited increase in service further clarifies that JetBlue is hellbent on owning FLL, and it’s doing a good job of trying to make that happen.
Air Canada Jazz CRJ900 Hits Fire Truck at LaGuardia, Two Killed
Upon landing at LaGuardia, an Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 operating from Montréal hit a fire truck that was crossing the runway at exactly the wrong time. The two pilots of the aircraft were killed and several others were injured.
The vaunted swiss cheese model of safety that has prevented so many accidents over the years failed this time. Both the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States will be investigating to see where things went wrong. As is always the case, we expect there will be many failure points along the way that led to this tragic disaster.
Those who jump to blame the air traffic controller should take a breath. We already know that the controller cleared the truck to cross the runway when he shouldn’t have, but the truck also did not stop when the controller reversed course. Further, the truck didn’t have a transponder onboard which also could have potentially prevented this accident. To top it all off, it was a late night with conditions undoubtedly impacted by the soaking wet airfield.
United Flight Attendants Get Their Second Tentative Agreement
The Week of UnitedTM continues with more good news for the airline as it has now reached a new tentative agreement on a contract with its flight attendants.
The flight attendant negotiations have been lengthy and at times contentious. The previous tentative agreement reached last year was resoundingly rejected, but this agreement seems to address the biggest pain points from the last agreement, including pay for long scheduled connections, restrictions on redeyes, and hazard pay for all flights touching Newark.
The union’s negotiating committee takes this to leadership on April 1 when they will have to convince them that this is not, in fact, a joke. If they approve, it will head to the membership on April 3 with voting taking place between April 23 and May 12.
Say Hello to Montreal’s Newest Metropolitan Airport
Since the whole Mirabel experiment was abandoned, Montréal has seen air service almost entirely consolidated at its Trudeau (formerly Dorval) airport. But get ready, because there’s a new sheriff in town. The long-awaited, rebranded Saint-Hubert Airport on the east side of the St Lawrence River is now Montréal Metropolitan, and it will have its first commercial flights from Porter on June 15.
Porter is not starting small. In that first week, it will begin flying from the airport to Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, Moncton, Québec City, St John’s, Toronto/City, Toronto/Pearson, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. This will instantly make Porter’s operation at Metropolitan bigger than the one at Trudeau, though whether that makes it a profitable venture is far less certain.
Porter is trying to recreate the convenience of Toronto’s City airport… just in a different city with an airport that’s further away from downtown. But the small terminal will be attractive, especially to those who live closer to that area, and it should be a very nice passenger experience.
- Air Belgium retired its final A330-200 (P2F).
- American continues to think about catching up to its competitors.
- Boeing‘s B787s have put on some weight.
- Delta is telling Congress they can suck it up until they fix their mess.
- Finnair was able to scrounge up an order with options for up to 46 E195-E2s that United overlooked.
- Hopscotch Air will partner with Euroairlines to get started as it aims for Best New Partnership at next year’s Cranky Network Awards.
- IAG is losing interest in tapping TAP.
- JetBlue pilots do not see Blue Sky as they sue over the United partnership.
- Porter is making award redemptions more costly.
- SAS joins the cool kids now that it has its first aircraft with Starlink flying.
- TAP is feeling blue as it deals with a lawsuit from Azul.
- United will fly Chicago – Keflavik through winter so that Chicagoans can warm up.
- United has decided to tell people which rows are for Relaxing on its airplanes
- Virgin Atlantic spiffed up its Clubhouse at Heathrow.
- Wizz is toying with the idea of installing wifi.
My mom gave the same advice my whole life. I spent decades thinking she didn’t understand my situation.
She understood my situation.
