Spirit, Port Authority Spar over LGA Slots

Spirit’s planned sale of its slots at New York/LGA to raise capital and pay off some creditors has hit a roadblock as the Port Authority of NY and NJ told a U.S. bankruptcy court that “slots themselves are not ‘fungible and transferable’ without its explicit permission and consent.” The Port has a point — generally when slots have been traded or sold, it has been done with the approval of the government body, and it wants a say in where these slots — and the cash — go.

But it was the airline — or at least the ghost of it — that won in bankruptcy court on Wednesday, garnering the route to sell the slots along with its loyalty program. This follows the precedent from when ATA went out of business and it was able to sell off its slots to send to creditors over the Port Authority’s objection.

If and when a sale goes through, Frontier is considered the leader in the clubhouse, as the Port Authority has shared its desire for another LCC to take over for Spirit, and Skybus just wasn’t an option. Of course, selling to the government’s preferred airline could go a long way to smoothing things over and avoiding an appeal that could keep the deal tied up in court for months or longer.

Western Sydney Airport Sets Opening Day

Eastern Perth Western Sydney Airport (WSI) will begin scheduled passenger ops on October 25, just in time for the start of Australia’s busy summer travel season giving customers seeking palatable Vegemite another airport to travel the world in their search. The airport will open two months earlier on July 26 for cargo ops with the first commercial flight coming two months later.

Jetstar will be the launch carrier for the airport, with the first flight being scheduled as JQ362 to Gold Coast at 11 a.m. Passengers taking the inaugural flight are being advised to arrive at the airport no later than next week to give airport officials time to work the kinks out and ensure no one misses the inaugural. The flight will be operated by an A320. Upon launch, Jetstar will operate 2x daily to Melbourne, 4x weekly to Gold Coast, and 3x weekly to Brisbane.

Qantas will join the party on March 28 of next year with 4x weekly service to both Melbourne and Brisbane. A third airline for the airport hasn’t been announced but we’re holding out hope that Mokulele will go for that long-anticipated Molokai – WSI route.

Other carriers to fly to WSI include Air New Zealand which will begin Auckland service on October 26 and Singapore to, well, Singapore, beginning November 23.

Frontier Goes Back to the (East) Bay

Who says you can’t go home again? Because Frontier is doing just that. Three years after leaving Oakland San Francisco Bay Area Airport, the carrier announced its return later this summer, with routes from OAK to both Boise and Las Vegas.

The LAS flight will operate 11x weekly for Frontier, while Boise will fly 4x weekly connecting potato lovers throughout the Bay Area with Idaho with just one little stop in Vegas.

In keeping with the current theme across the industry, both flights will replace former Spirit routes as the green airline seeks to replace the yellow airline in the hearts, minds, and wallets of Bay Area budget travelers. With its return to OAK, Frontier will rejoin the club that operates from all three Bay Area airports with heavy reporting that Tico The Two-Toed Sloth is a heavy wine drinker and is pushing for service to Santa Rosa soon as well.

Air Canada’s Pilot who Wasn’t

Police in the Toronto suburb of Peel are investigating a pilot for Air Canada that flew hundreds of flights without a proper license. Geoffrey Wall who we assume is a lover of ice hockey, maple syrup, and poutine was fully-trained with a commercial pilotʻs license, but allegedly did not have an airline transport license which is required both under Canadian law and common sense.

Air Canada said the pilot is no longer employed at the airline and that safety was not compromised which is exactly what an airline might say if safety was compromised by allowing an improperly-licensed pilot to take the controls of an aircraft. The airline also says an audit of its pilots showed no one else was in non-compliance. Ok, that’s great, but it feels like a fool me once…situation.

AC declined further comment on the matter but did confirm to Cranky just prior to press time that represenatives from Pakistan International Airlines reached out and inquired about Wall’s contact information.

American’s FAs Want Time Back

As part of their annual training, FAs are required to spend two days at headquarters in Fort Worth where they receive training and run through actions and responses for in-flight emergencies such as how to open exit doors, evacuate the airplane, knock some sense into passengers who try to bring their carry-ons during an emergency, and what to do with Basic Economy passengers during an emergency (spoiler: $39 charge for using the slide).

But they also have to do one day of online module training at home as well. This training is supposed to take eight hours, and per the union contract, FAs are paid $150 for completion. But the union — The Association of Professional Flight Attendants — say it takes much longer than eight hours and that it’s an outdated and unrealistic process. The union is putting its money where its mouth is, moving the inquiry to formal arbitration. APFA wants the pay bumped for the time it truly takes to complete the module and it wants it simplified and brought up with modern times — no more questions about what to do during an emergency of an on-time flight, for instance, because we all know AA doesn’t run any of those.

How long does the module take? AA knows but it isn’t telling. Why won’t it tell? Stay tuned to this space for an update once arbitration begins.

• ABRA signed an MoU expanding its partnership with Air Canada to loyalty programs and cargo ops.
• Air Canada‘s first A321XLR entered service.
• Air France-KLM is interested in easyJet.
• American is adding service to both Maracaibo and Cap-Haïtien from Miami.
• BA says its prices are going to increase.
• Biman Bangladesh is looking for consultants.
• Cambodia Airlines took delivery of its first ATR72-600 last Friday.
• Delta returned to Hong Kong.
• El Al is wet leasing two A320-200s that will now go through the conversion process to use only kosher jet fuel.
• Emirates is seeking permission to operate daily to both Berlin and Stuttgart.
• Etihad is growing its codeshare with Condor.
• Finnair is returning flights to both Turku and Tampere in October, after replacing flights with buses on both routes since 2022.
• flydubai will begin nonstop service between Dubai and Pokhara.
• ITA felt like ANA and Lufthansa’s JV was going too well.
• Mexicana ran out of time on its World Cup dreams.
• Norse Atlantic named Frans “don’t call me Bjørn” Leenaars as its new CCO.
• Philippine Airlines is considering a widebody order. And if you clicked this link, then technically you are too. It also became the 16th member of oneworld.
• Riyadh Air flew its first commercial flight with actual passengers.
• SATA Air Azores might sell some airplanes.
• Southwest is beginning an interline agreement with Singapore. Sometimes the jokes come too easily.
• Uganda Airlines is adding 10 Boeing aircraft.
• WestJet joined Icelandair in a codeshare partnership. Parka required.
• Wizz Air is joining the Starlink family.

What’s the difference between a bird flu and swine flu?

One requires tweetment while the other an oinkment.