I was solo on the podcast again this week, but instead of a guest host, I interviewed Southwest COO Andrew Watterson. Yes, he was on the show earlier this year, but a lot has happened since then. Tune in to hear about how the airline is going to fix its on-time problem, what the plans are with the MAX 7, and a little talk about Andrew’s recent change in responsibilities.

Listen on Spotify   |   Listen on Apple Podcasts

Delta and Aeromexico Win in Court

Delta and its joint venture partner Aeromexico scored a big win in court Thursday when the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the two carriers to continue their JV — rather than close up shop. This ruling comes more than two years after the DOT ordered the two airlines to end collaborating on scheduling, capacity, pricing, and how many tons of Mexican avocados can be used in guacamole in the United States annually.

In its ruling, the court said the DOT “did not reasonably explain why it conducted a far more limited market analysis in this case ​than it has always done in the past or why it imposed a requirement for approval of the joint venture that it did not require of similar joint ventures it approved in Japan.” The resounding victory for Delta in federal court came in — we’ll give you one guess — Atlanta, and the carrier said that the ruling would allow for the JV to continue to “provide(d) greater choice, more seamless travel, and increased connectivity for consumers while supporting U.S. jobs and economic growth.”

The government isn’t done, however. The DOT said it will consider all legal options available at its disposal to prove illegal cooperation, including seizing the contents of Delta’s secret (though not to us) Biscoff Tunnel in the Atlanta airport which rumors suggest is also holding vats of Jarritos.

Oh Say Can You See on the Back of the Seat In Front of You?

American Airlines is bringing back seatback screens on the majority of its narrowbody fleet, which, coupled with Starlink Wi-Fi , means American is getting closer to replicating the living room setup at 30,000 feet.

The screens will have what AA calls “industry-leading screen sizes,” along with 4K technology, expanded content and partnership, USB-C charging ports, and bluetooth connectivity. So in other words, American will join Delta and United in 2022. If you’ve already booked your travel on AA, don’t hold your breath. Installation will begin in 2028 on newly delivered narrowbody aircraft. The entire fleet including a retrofit of the current aircraft in the fleet isn’t expected until next decade.

Now, AA’s 140 widebody aircraft already feature seatback screens as do its A321XLRs. The narrowbody reversal comes 12 years after the airline doubled-down on the idea that the screens aren’t worth the cost during the post-US Airways merger period. We’ll see what AA’s move is 12 years now — perhaps it’ll be to remove those screens… again.

For more on this, visit this week’s post on Cranky Flier.

Alaska Adds Athens and Paris

Alaska Airlines continues to mold its image into that of a global carrier, as it announced two new European destinations from its Seattle home. This May, Alaska will begin flying to both Athens and Paris/CDG from SEA, operating 5x weekly to Paris and 3x weekly to Athens. Both flights will be operated on Hawaiian’s Alaska’s B787-9 Dreamliners.

Prior to last year, the Hawaiian islands were as far as Alaska had strayed from North America, but that has changed in a big way. These two flights will join London/LHR, Reykjavik, and Rome/FCO as European destinations on the carrier, along with Tokyo/Haneda and Seoul/Incheon in Asia. In its release, Alaska said that both Athens and Paris were among the most requested by Atmos members. Well, yeah, you could put Paris with Newark or Tucson, and all of a sudden people would want to go to all three. Paris always does the heavy lifting.

This comes as part of Alaska’s goal of having 14 long-haul destinations by 2030. Alaska will compete head-to-head with Delta on SEA-CDG, while it will not face non-stop competition on SEA-ATH as its the sole carrier flying there not only from Seattle, but from the entire west coast.

American Grows Premium Offerings

It’s not just seatbacks changing on American. The carrier is also growing its onboard premium seating options as it expands both first class and its extra legroom options on its narrowbody fleet.

At this time, American says about 25% of the seats on its narrow body fleet are premium, but after this project is complete, the figure will be closer to 40%. This includes new MAX 10s being delivered with 24 first class seats and a retrofit for its A321neos with more as well. The AAirline will also expand the number of Main Cabin Extra seats, which, when combined with the additional seats in first class will only go to bring greater shame to those still stuck in Main Cabin.

It also plans to refresh the interiors of its single-aisle aircraft, to include adding storage (to encourage more carry-ons and force the boarding process to take even longer), redesigned seats (to increase the chance you won’t find gum on the bottom of your seat), and enhanced lighting (so you can better see the passengers still relegated to Main Cabin despite the dramatic increase in premium seat counts).

Google Wins Bid for Spirit’s Data

Google won an auction with a price of $10 million giving it access to Spirit’s abandoned data, software code, and operations records. Google says it wants the bundle to improve its AI processes but we think they’re doing all this to reverse engineer the feeling of euphoria that came from cracking open a BuzzBall in seat 37C when flying from Fort Lauderdale to Latrobe, PA. The purchase does not include personal data (allegedly) including the 50 million members of Free Spirit, the 97 million who flew on the airline, or internal personal records.

Supposedly what’s included is data from marketing campaigns, HR, strategy, and project management. We understand that to be primarily a comprehensive record of Spirit’s cache of yellow paint cans.

It also includes pricing from billions of flights, pricing curve data, and billions of passenger transaction records. Lastly, it has 30 million lines of codes, metadata, software models, and algorithms along with redacted employee records. At this point, the relevant question isn’t to ask what Google will really do with all this — but to ask how it’s possible they didn’t already have all of it already?

It’s not a done deal yet, however, as Spirit’s flight attendant union is objecting to the sale.

• Air India‘s flights to and from Visakhapatnam will operate from the new Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport, at Bhogapuram. But good news, folks, the airline code isn’t changing, it’s still VTZ, so it should be simple.
• AirAsia is returning 25 aircraft to their lessors.
• Akasa Air agreed to a sale-and-leaseback for seven B737-8s.
• Azul is entering a transition year.
• Brussels Airlines is adding three destinations you’ll likely want to avoid during winter.
• Cathay Pacific says it’ll add 15 airplanes in the next 10 years.
• Fly2Galicia plans to launch operations this December with eight routes from Santiago de Compostela.
• flybondi seems to have booked its appearance in Cranky Flier’s year-end Airlines We Lost post.
• Israir has October 19 as its target date to begin flying to New York.
• Korean Air will begin 3x weekly seasonal service from Seoul to Melbourne beginning December 18.
• Lufthansa City expects its first A220 in November.
• National Airlines received DOT authority for U.S. – Venezuela service. We expect it to open a hub at DCA soon.
• Oman Air named Nasser Al Sharji as its new CEO.
• SAA‘s acting CEO is no longer acting as CEO.
• Somali Airlines is hoping to resume operations later this year.
• SpiceJet was reprimanded in an Indian court.
• Southwest is scooping up $2 billion in credit from Chase and Citi.
• STARLUX is going to grow its training complex in Taipei.
• WestJet completed the de-LCCification of its cabins.

What starts with E, ends with E, and has only 1 letter in it?

Envelope