We are back from our late summer break, and this week Brian and I talk about the summer 2027 announcements from Air Canada, American, and United. Really, we’re focusing mostly on the A321XLR routes now that this airplane has enough critical mass to let us see the strategy.
Delta Continues to Grow in Los Angeles
Delta announced an expansion in Los Angeles Friday morning as the carrier continues to attempt to entrench itself as the #1 carrier at LAX. Earlier this week, the carrier announced new service from LAX to Monterey, and today it said it will launch a daily flight to Philadelphia beginning next summer. The flights to PHL will be operated by Delta’s A321neo, launching on June 7.
But it’s not stopping at those new destinations — the carrier is also beefing up frequencies on seven destinations: Boston, Cincinnati, Houston/IAH, Raleigh/Durham, San Antonio, San Diego, and Seattle. Delta is planning its largest LAX schedule in its history including previously-announced new service to Manila and Vancouver. While Delta will offer more flights than any other carrier from the airport, its transpacific offerings are less than that of rival United. But that’s ok, because you can fly 5 times a day to San Diego, and that’s really what matters here.
Delta did pick LAX as the first airport to receive a second Delta One lounge. The 75-seat lounge in T2 gives Delta’s top passengers an alternative than making the trek to T3. This comes as the airline offers more than 200 departures to almost 70 destinations next summer — including both Newark and Tucson… for now.
airBaltic Files for Bankruptcy
airBaltic did what every Latvian based company does when money gets tight — it filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday.
In its filing, the airline said it secured a commitment for €350 million in debtor-in-possession financing provided it receives approval from the court. The carrier says business will continue as normal for the foreseeable future to include flights, refunds, etc. In its Q1 earnings at the end of March, the airline showed €472 million of borrowings and nearly €900 million in lease liabilities.
The Latvian government currently holds 88.4% of the voting rights at the carrier while Lufthansa holds most of the remaining bits. We won’t be surprised if Lufthansa’s interest forces the airline to shut down and then restart under a slightly different name. Get ready for airBaltic City Airlines! The airline says its current reorganization will wrap up next summer provided it receives court approval to access the DIP financing. Stay tuned. Ryanair certainly is.
Breeze Pilots Look to Federal Mediation
Negotiations between Breeze and its pilots are in their 4th year at this point, and that has led ALPA to file a request to have the government appoint a mediator to help with the negotiations.
In what could be the most predictable response ever, the airline acknowledged this is happening while not agreeing with the characterization of the negotiations. The pilots from Breeze blew into ALPA in 2022 and have been working on a CBA since the early days of 2023. This request comes after ALPA sued Breeze in January for much of the same — saying that the carrier was allegedly obstructing negotiations.
Despite four years of talks, almost nothing has been decided between the two parties except that their lead negotiators are benefitting financially from the drawn out process. According to ALPA, hardly any key contract sections have reached tentative agreement, with just two sections reaching any sort of consensus stage since January 2025. Under the Railway Labor Act, mediation can continue until the government determines that a voluntary agreement is unlikely. In that case, a 30-day cooling off period must expire before either side can take self-help action.
Lufthansa Places First MAX 10 Order
A new aircraft is joining the Lufthansa family as the carrier used an option from a 2023 order for B737-8 MAXs to purchase 20 B737-10 MAXs with a rack rate of about $3.4 billion.
If you’re pumped about seeing the MAX 10 in LH colors, you’ll want to chill your jets as deliveries aren’t expected to begin until the next decade. Nothing says German efficiency like an aircraft order who’s delivery date is “TBA…sometime next decade.” It also helps to diversify your narrowbody fleet if you’re Lufthansa and hedge your bets at the same time. Airbus can’t deliver enough airplanes, Boeing can also not deliver enough airplanes.
Lufthansa says the MAX 10 will consume 30% less fuel while reducing unit costs by 20%.
American Earns its Stripes
American Airlines and German LCC Condor announced their plans to launch an interline partnership this week. Of course this is the lowest level of cooperation available to two carriers, so this isn’t groundbreaking at face value. But American does boast in the release that it flies to more than 150 cities from Condor’s U.S. gateways (BOS, JFK, LAX, and soon ORD). And let’s be real — nothing says partnership like agreeing to move each other’s bags underground at airports around the world.
Condor is an alliance-less beach towel airline that picks its spots to take on Lufthansa. The two airlines used to have a feeder program in which LH provided feeder traffic to Condor, but that agreement was ended a year ago. Whether or not this is the first step in seeing Condor join oneworld is definitely a bit presumptuous, but it does seem like a likely landing spot for the airline…eventually. It’s already partners with newish oneworld member Alaska, and this buddying up to American can’t hurt in that regard either.
The partnership will give American customers another way to connect in Germany without having to learn the intricacies of Lufthansa Group, something we all can appreciate.
- Air Astana will resume flying to Dubai next month.
- Air Canada‘s Mark Nasr was named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 list, joining a maple syrup heir, a poutine industry influencer, and what we assume are 37 ice hockey players.
- BermudAir is adding an E190F.
- Cape Air will use Grand Caravans to operate its Montana operation beginning next year.
- Delta spent some time, money, and internet space to tell us about the wine it’s serving in Delta One.
- Etihad unveiled its new seats in the pointy end of the plane.
- Finnair appointed a new Chief Digital Officer.
- Frontier adds two from Detroit.
- Harbour Air is acquiring Pacific Coastal Airlines.
- ITA is considering Newark and we think it’d be a match made in heaven.
- Korean confirmed an order of 103 aircraft from Boeing.
- La Compagnie could double its fleet in the next couple years.
- Qatar plans to add 138 jets in the next five years which is an awfully specific number.
- Smartwings takeover by Pegasus was conditionally approved by the Czech government.
- Sunrise is adding 1x weekly service to both Fort Myers and West Palm Beach from Cap-Haitien.
- TAROM has a new Interim General Director who will direct things in a general manner for a finite amount of time.
- TAP received a share-swap proposal from Air France-KLM.
In the word “scent,” which is the silent letter? The “s” or the “c?”
