This week’s episode of The Air Show is live, and if you’ve been reading the blog this week, you might not be surprised to hear we’re taking a deeper look at the Hawaiian interisland market. Jon tells us more about this discussion with Alaska’s incoming President Shane Tackett, and we look back at how this market developed over the last 100 years. (Though yes, Jon makes me speed the history lesson along….)

Avelo Adds Six

Avelo is back it, throwing darts at a map of the eastern United States to decide its newest routes. The carrier will be growing its presnce to three vacationing hotspots: Puerto Rico, Florida, and…Houston.

From both its New Haven home and Lakeland, FL, the carrier will begin serving Aguadilla on Puerto Rico’s northwest coast. Both routes will operate 2x weekly, with LAL beginning November 18 and New Haven a day later on the 19th. Not surprisingly, Avelo will find itself as the only carrier on both routes.

From Concord, NC or as Avelo calls it, “Charlotte,” the airline will add flights to three Florida destinations. Fort Myers will begin November 19, operating 2x weekly, Orlando will begin November 18 operating 4x weekly, and lastly, Tampa will begin November 20 at 2x weekly. Lastly, Avelo will add a new airport to its map, with Houston/IAH joining the fray on September 21. IAH flights will operate 2x weekly from New Haven. While IAH is a new airport for the carrier, Houston is not a new city — Avelo currently serves Hobby from New Haven, but the service will conclude on September 20.

Alaska Cuts Capacity to Mexico

Alaska Airlines is drawing back some service to Mexico in an effort to boost its presence in Hawai’i. This is a prudent move for the carrier, but one has to wonder if there is a Hawaiian-based airline that’s operated in the islands for decades that it could partner with — or merge with — to grow its Hawaiian operation. We’ll never know.

Five seasonal routes will not return for Alaska:

• Las Vegas: Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos
• Los Angeles: Cancún
• San Francisco: Cancún, Loreto

Four of the routes were previously scheduled to resume in November, with SFO-LTO to follow at the start of darkest winter in January. Despite the loss of service, the carrier is maintaining service to all four airports from other U.S. cities.

Breeze Adds Three Cities

Breeze Airways added three new destinations to its route map this week: Baltimore, Dayton, and Trenton. The airline will connect these three cities to its east coast network while also beefing up service to other spots.

In Baltimore, the carrier is entering slowly and strategically, only offering initial service to two cities often confused for each other, Burlington and Vero Beach, instead of challenging Southwest directly from one of its fortress hubs intentional connecting opportunities. In Dayton, the focus is very clearly beefing up service for Florida residents to visit Central Ohio — a huge untapped market — as the airline added non-stop service to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, and Raleigh-Durham along with connecting service to Sarasota.

As for Trenton, Breeze will be the third airline at the airport and it will offer non-stop service to Charleston (SC), Fort Myers, and Vero Beach with connecting service to Fort Lauderdale.

Other new routes for Breeze include Atlantic City – Vero Beach (finally), Provo – Raleigh-Durham, and Madison – Fort Myers. Every new route will operate 2x weekly except for the two from BWI which will fly 3x weekly.

For more on Breeze’s latest expansion, see this week’s Cranky Flier post.

Atlanta to Finally Get Delta One Lounge…Eventually

When Delta opened its first round of Delta One lounges in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle they opened quickly after being announced, and surely Delta will do the same at its home airport of Atlanta…right? Well, no. Delta will open a D1 lounge in Atlanta, but if you’re preparing to wait in line outside the entrance, you’re gonna be there a while, as the lounge is currently slated to open in 2029…or 2030.

The airline will be adding a 39,000-square foot lounge in Concourse E, one of Delta’s two (primarily) international concourses at ATL. At that size, the ATL lounge will be Delta’s second largest D1 lounge, just behind New York/JFK. The airline is going to be starting from scratch on this lounge, not repurposing an already-existing space, which is why the timeline is so drawn out. The carrier says it’ll take 30 months to build the lounge which puts us in early 2029, and if we know anything about construction at airports, that probably means 2030.

On the bright side, that gives Delta plenty of time to backfill its Biscoff stock prior to the opening of the lounge. While a line isn’t quite yet forming outside what will be the entrance, you can rest assured that Atlanta-based VIT (very important travelers) and Medallions of all colors are working up their complaints to the lounge agents when their first class ticket to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America doesn’t give them access as the flight isn’t operated with a D1 cabin. Should be great.

FAA Extends Slot Waiver…Again

The FAA extended slot relief at the three airports still living under level 1 slot rules: New York/JFK, New York/LGA, and Washington/National. The broader operating caps at JFK and LGA now run through late October 2028, while the slot-usage relief at JFK, LGA, and DCA runs through late 2027. When asked to comment about the news, the LGA rats said “not our problem, we don’t live there anymore. If the FAA wants to cap bus departures at the Port Authority, then we’ll talk.”

At JFK, the cap remains 81 scheduled takeoffs and landings per hour during slot-controlled hours which are 6 a.m. through 10:59 p.m., leaving the 2 a.m. hour wide open for anyone who wants to build the world’s least convenient hub bank. Generally, carriers are required to use least 80% of their slots or risk losing them under the “use it or lose it” rule. But for now, airlines can continue to fly 10% fewer flights and still keep the slots, which is great news for anyone whose core competency has become not operating.

“Hey, there’s one thing we’re in compliance with…reduced operations!” said the four skeletons left behind at Spirit’s Miramar offices to wind down the carrier.

So now the race is on: which happens first: the New York slot waiver finally ends, or ATL’s Delta One lounge opens?

• Air France is pulling out of Mali.
• Asiana will bid 안녕히 가세요 to Star Alliance at the stroke of midnight on December 17.
• BA has a new codeshare partner and it’s Porter Airlines.
• Cargolux is buying four B747-400 freighters from China Airlines.
• China Eastern is is placing a big order from Airbus.
• Delta had its day in court Tuesday with the DOT with regards to its JV with Aeromexico. The carrier is also taking direct aim at United as it prepares to launch 2x daily LAX-EWR service in the spring.
• easyJet is rejecting Castlelake’s £4.74 billion hostile takeover.
• French Bee will begin buzzing around Malé and Colombo this December from Paris/Orly.
• JetSMART is investing $550 million with the intent to grow its fleet.
• JSX is adding service between Oakland and Santa Monica that will operate up to 3x daily.
• Korean and its JV partner Delta are expanding the Remote Baggage Screenings that allow passengers to skip claiming and rechecking bags to include flights from ICN to Los Angeles and Seattle. The program now covers flights on DL/KE from ICN to Atlanta, Detroit, and Minneapolis/St Paul in addition to LAX and SEA.
• Malaysia and Singapore Airlines launched their strategic partnership.
• National Jet Express added a 13th Q400 to its fleet, giving it 21 aircraft total.
• Norse Atlantic is adding to its already beefy service to Thailand.
• Qatar added two positions on its executive team.
• SAS is expected to add to its long-haul fleet.
• Singapore‘s CEO role pays well.
• Southwest‘s first aircraft with Starlink entered revenue service. The internet access was assigned Seat 29C and paid for two checked bags.
• SWISS is extending the suspension on its service to Dubai through October 24.
• Syria Airlines plans to resume Amsterdam service next month.
• Thai received its first Dreamliner with GE engines. We assume previous Dreamliners delivered to the carrier had engines also but cannot confirm.
• t’way Air s’ecured a $71 million cash infusion.
• United operated its first widebody revenue flight with Starlink earlier this week.
• Vietnam Airlines is receiving $2.9 billion in financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank for future aircraft acquisition.
• WestJet has a new Toronto Blue Jays themed aircraft.

Who invented King Arthur’s round table?

Sir Cumference.