American Airlines Pilot Chatter: New Heathrow Flights, Giving Up On LAX – And Growth

by Gary Leff

May 27 2022

Last week I flew Austin – Washington Dulles and a flight attendant told me American was planning to start flying Austin – Washington National. She was sure of it! I explained the perimeter rule to her and how American cannot fly Austin – Washington National without the Department of Transportation assigning ‘beyond perimeter’ slots that are created in law. It turns out she’d heard this news from… a passenger.

That said sometimes there are real tidbits of news, or at least interesting opinions. So I thought I’d pass along these ‘pilot tidbits’ shared to twitter by serial airline newsbreaker JonNYC along with context for what they mean.

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American Airlines Launching New Service To New Zealand, Dropping Israel And India Routes

by Gary Leff

May 27 2022

American Airlines is launching a new long haul Pacific route, Dallas to Auckland, complementing Qantas Dallas – Sydney service. They won’t restart Los Angeles – Auckland, though, and they’re dropping the idea of Dallas – Tel Aviv. The long-expect Seattle – Bangalore flight, which was supposed to be American’s first return to India, won’t happen until (at least) summer 2023 if it comes to fruition.

There are several more route changes as American adjusts its international strategy as well.

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Aeroflot Forced To Forfeit London Heathrow Slots Permanently

by Gary Leff

May 26 2022

One week ago the British government announced sanctions against three Russian airlines: Aeroflot, Ural Airlines and Rossiya Airlines. This kept them from selling or leasing takeoff and landing slots at U.K. airports. Russian airlines already couldn’t enter U.K. airspace.

We now know what this means in practice for their London Heathrow slots: Russian airlines don’t just lose the ability to profit from their slots, they actually lose the slots.

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A Loss Of Reliability Has Far-Reaching Implications For Delta – And American Express

by Gary Leff

May 26 2022

Delta Air Lines used to have a reputation for almost never cancelling a mainline flight. Their unique selling proposition was their reliability. They accomplished this with a fleet of generally older aircraft, and built a maintenance capability so effective that it became a profit center.

Reliability isn’t a new problem for Delta, in fact Delta was first to begin having operational meltdowns in the Covid world. But as the halo wears off the wheels could begin to fall off of the SkyMiles program and have implications far beyond Delta too.

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Warning: Delta Cancelling Flights In Advance, To Reduce Cancellations On Day Of Travel

by Gary Leff

May 26 2022

Last weekend the Delta Air Lines operation melted down. On Monday they cancelled 10% of their flights, and that’s with a bias towards delays – even overnight delays – to keep from running up their cancel statistics. They delayed many flights on top of this. Beset by confusion they even assigned a pilot to fly a Boeing 757 to Hawaii who wasn’t qualified to do so.

Now they’re cancelling more flights in advance, in order to reduce cancellations on the day of travel. And they’re starting now – for this weekend.

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US Government Plans To Require Larger Bathrooms On Planes – But Starting 20 Years From Now

by Gary Leff

lavatory
May 26 2022

Since narrowbody aircraft are used on the vast majority of domestic flights, and even the vast majority of domestic flights over 1500 miles (American Airlines uses Airbus A321s for its ‘premium’ cross country flights between New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County) it’s a major challenge.

And it means that non-stop flights are generally off the table for a subset of passengers unable to use modern narrowbody bathrooms. They have to connect using flights no longer than they’re able to ‘hold it’.

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United Airlines Is Restoring Hot Meals In Domestic First Class

by Gary Leff

airline food
May 25 2022

Nature is healing. Food matters. Customers may not have time to eat before a flight, or buy food on connections. The point of first class isn’t just “the Big Front Seat” unless you’re flying Spirit Airlines. It’s buying a less stressful and more effortless experience. Earning a revenue premium for the product means delivering things that make travel better for passengers, and time and again customers have stated that inflight meals matter.

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The Airports With The Least Affordable Airfare In The United States

by Gary Leff

May 25 2022

The most expensive airfares in the country are at Washington Dulles airport, followed by San Francisco, Detroit, Portland and New York JFK. That’s according to Department of Transportation data for 2021. They tend to be either expensive airports with limited competition (New York JFK is slot-controlled) or dominated by a single airline without as much ultra low cost competition as those on the other end of the list.

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