JetBlue Wins LGA Slot Auction

JetBlue Airways emerged as the winner for Spirit’s former slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. It paid $58.5 million for the right to operate up to 12 more daily roundtrips flights, outbidding Frontier by $1 million. The ink isn’t dry on the deal yet, and JetBlue is already considering a move to the now-deserted Marine Air Terminal at the airport. The historic terminal is without a human tenant at the moment as Spirit was its lone carrier until it ceased operating. The rats that fled the old central terminal for the MAT have indicated a willingness to share the space once again.

The Marine Air Terminal was the home of the Delta Shuttle with nearly hourly service to Boston, Chicago, and Washington at various times in its history until December 2017. Delta moved its full operation to Terminal C at that time while Alaska and JetBlue moved to the terminal. Alaska left LGA altogether in December of 2019, and Spirit joined JetBlue in April 2021. B6 left for Terminal B on July 9, 2022, but this deal proves that what’s old can be new again.

A move for JetBlue would lower its operating costs at LGA. It currently flies to just four destinations from the airport, Fort Lauderdale, Nantucket, Orlando, and West Palm Beach with the bulk of its NYC operation a few miles away at JFK.

Southwest Barrels to Record Revenue

Here’s an idea: Open a business and give a lot of things to your customers included in the price of what you’re selling — regardless of what it is. Maybe its napkins and straws at a restaurants, or water and towels at a gym — or checked bags and seat assignments for an airline. Then start charging for it and see what it does to your revenue, because Southwest Airlines announced gross revenue of $8.4 billion, the highest in its history, and a 16.4% increase from last year.

Net profit for Southwest was $233 million which came out to $0.47 per share. Southwest’s fuel bill came to $2.2 billion, a whopping 67% jump from Q2 in ’25. The carrier paid $3.92 per gallon (imagine how any Rapid Rewards points the carrier could have if it used its RR Visa to pay for the fuel), somewhat better than the $4.10-$4.15 it expected to pay. Looking forward, it expects Q3 fuel to be around $3.75 per gallon. To keep pace, the airline saw one-way fares jump 21% up to $225.61 — this is not your father’s Southwest.

Q3 forecasting was underwhelming for Southwest as it now expects a $3.25 to $4.25 profit per share for the full year, compared to the $4 profit per share it predicted back in January before that whole inconvenient war thing broke out. It ended the quarter with $3.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents plus about $500,000 in gatehouse boarding group signage that’s now collecting dust in a secret vault located 100 feet underground at the point equidistant to DAL, HOU, and SAT airports.

American Squeaked Out a Small Profit

American squeaked its way to a tidy $71 million profit in Q2 on $16.7 billion in gross revenue. That figure was an all-time record for the airline for any quarter in its history. Just like everyone else, the carrier took it on the chin at the pump as it pAAid just shy of $5 billion on fuel — a figure in line with its rival United.

The $71 million profit represents about $0.11 per share, down significantly from Q2 last year in which its $599 million profit came out to $0.91 per share. The record revenue figure was a 16% jump from last year and included a 10% leap in unit revenue.

AA’s forward-looking guidance is less bullish on the rest of the year, predicting the stock to end up somewhere between a $0.65 loss and $0.65 profit per share, quite the range. In Q3, however, it’s expecting to lose between $0.10 and $0.70 per share despite an increase in revenue of 16-19%. The airline remains burned by $29 billion in long-term debt that is eating away at what profits it does have. In some good news, it did end the quarter with over $11 billion in available liquidity which means they can probably spring for the mid-tier liquor at the holiday party later this year.

Alaska Adjusts Hawaiʻi Fleet, Announces Earnings

Alaska Airlines continues to walk a tightrope in an attempt to align its own Alaska brand with Hawaiian’s brand on flying to, from, and within the islands while also keeping Hawaiian somewhat separate to keep the locals happy.

The carrier is going to swap the current B717 fleet that flies interisland service with a new B737-800 fleet which will feature Starlink for those who can’t afford to be off the grid for 25 minutes. These planes will have more cargo room for surfboards, but there was no confirmation they’ll also have more room for suckling pig, nor on how many pallets of spam can fit onboard.

In other Alaska news, the airline’s Q2 reporting shows a loss of $76 million on gross revenue of $4.1 billion, a 10% increase from last year. The story was much of the same for Alaska — rising everything including costs and fuel. Forward looking guidence says ASM will jump next quarter 2-3%, with RASM up low double digits, all of which will lead to $0.00 to $1.00 profit per share.

For more on Alaska’s aircraft swap in Hawai’i, please visit Wednesday’s post from crankyflier.com.

United Drops 11 in the Windy City

United’s grand plan to outflank American in Chicago and operate the largest schedule in ORD history is shrinking, as it will not operate 10 regional routes it previously planned to fly this summer, along with one route to Mexico.

You’ll recall that earlier in the season we had the FAA guest starring in Beyond ORD Gates, and the government told both airlines that its planned summer schedules were not reasonable and both needed to pull back. As a result, United will not begin these 11:

• Bloomington (IL)
• Central Wisconsin
• Champaign
• Erie
• Kalmazoo
• La Crosse
• Lansing
• Marquette
• Rochester (MN)
• Tri-Cities
• and…Guadalajara

As of now, UA could bring these back (can you bring something back that never started?) some day, but for now, the good people of Bloomington and Champaign can probably drive to ORD. For everyone else, it might be time to introduce you to American Airlines…or Detroit.

• Aerolíneas Argentinas is leasing six B737-10s.
• Air Astana applied for rights to begin operating to the U.S.
• Air Canada is working with Airbus to scale domestic Canadian SAF, whatever that means. The people of Santa Fe had no comment.
• Air France is wet-leasing an A220.
• airBaltic owes the Latvian government $34 million.
• Alaska‘s entire B787 fleet will be equipped with Starlink by the end of the year.
• BA is putting Pratt & Whitney engines on its A320neos.
• BermudAir placed an order for 10 A220-300s. Delivery is expected to begin late next year.
• Emirates revealed a new headrest in economy that it seems to be really excited about. But the carrier is less excited about the first batch of B777X aircraft with its president Sir Tim Clark saying he would not accept delivery of the planes and compared them to “baked bean tins” which seems offensive to the beans.
• Etihad chose peace, not war, as it expands its interline agreement with Air Peace.
• Finnair adjusted its capacity guidence downward.
• Fuji Dream Airlines fulfilled one of its dreaming adding to its E175 fleet.
• Gulf Air is buying JetZero’s Z4 if it ever actually becomes a thing.
• IndiGo posted a loss.
• LATAM received $505 million in aircraft financing.
• Philippine Airlines plans to join oneworld late next year.
• Qatar is adding 1x daily service between Brisbane and Auckland as a tag on its Doha-Brisbane route.
• Ryanair saw its profits drop 34%.
• Saudia signed an MoU to expand its partnership with Garuda Indonesia.
• Uganda Airlines ordered four B737-8s and four B787-9s.
• US-Bangla Airlines, our third favorite Bangladesh-based airline, wants to launch a LCC which would then become our fourth favorite Bangladesh-based airline.
• Vietnam Airlines is leasing 19 B737 MAX 8s.

My friend’s girlfriend wrote on a balloon, “Will you propose to me?”

He immediately popped the question