Happy Labor Day, everyone! Hopefully you’re enjoying some time off, but if you’re working over the weekend, I’m sure you’re enjoying the lucrative holiday pay that comes with blocking in just a few minutes past midnight on September 2.
The Main Squawk: JetBlue may soon offer “pilot buyouts” to aid its return to profitability
A rumor is circulating around Queens that JetBlue is eyeing an opportunity to offer pilot buyouts as early as next year. Details surrounding the buyouts are unsurprisingly vague, but if offered, they will likely mirror the early-outs Delta solicited at the onset of the pandemic.
JetBlue is currently offering its flight attendants up to six months of unpaid leave starting this month. It previously offered customer support staff the opportunity to leave the Company with a severance package. Neither offer included pilots or maintenance technicians.
Like Southwest, JetBlue is in the midst of fighting off an activist investor, albeit theirs—Carl Ichan—has anything but a good reputation in the airline industry. Unlike Elliott, Icahn has yet to reveal how his near ten percent stake in the airline will do anything but aggravate its plans to return to profitability.
The Company is also cutting back on service at Washington-DCA by reducing its daily operation to twenty flights for the winter. It will exit the DCA-Fort Myers market entirely, and will not resume service to New York-JFK. It previously operated twenty-seven routes from the Capitol’s favorite airport earlier this year.
Southwest is ramping up its red eye operation by adding flights from Denver, Sacramento, and San Diego to none other than its cherished Northeast base: Baltimore. They plan to add the flights to its schedule as early as January 2025, but its money-hungry pilot group is pushing for service to start in December so they can earn holiday pay on top of red eye pay.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan says he is “really proud” that the airline can add red eyes to its operation with such ease, adding that “I mean, the aircraft are available, obviously, overnight.” Meanwhile, I always thought aircraft hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign on themselves at night, signaling they’d really prefer to sleep after a hard day’s work.
I mean, the aircraft are available, obviously, overnight.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan, stating the obvious, as always
On another note, it’s now easier to earn A-list status with the Dallas-based airline so you can nab just the right seat for those red eyes—until it figures out how to assign seats in early-2025.
Frontier is adding eleven new routes to its network, including two destinations from New York-JFK and a return to Washington-IAD.
The Denver-based airline first launched service at JFK earlier this year and quickly realized that any flight between New York and Florida is easy to fill—especially in the ULCC market. It plans to start operating flights from JFK to Orlando and Tampa in late-October.
The Company’s return to the Capitol’s least favorite airport (IAD) will kickoff in November with service to Atlanta and Orlando.
European air travel is in for some turbulence as strikes work stoppages across multiple labor groups are set to unfold throughout September. Regions impacted span from Germany to Spain and range from pilots to airport workers to public transportation workers.
The Points Guy has a good guide which is tracking the situation.
The biggest gripe the workers have is that despite air travel being busier than ever, they’ve yet to receive any form of wage increase comparable to the amount of work they’re putting in. Their collective bargaining agents have announced that they’ll be satisfied with negotiations when they’re permitted to use six times the amount of vacation awarded to the average American.
Seattle-Tacoma suffered a computer outage—unrelated to CrowdStrike—which prompted airport employees to use a whiteboard to display flight status.
Passengers enjoyed comparing the information displayed on the whiteboard to what was showing in their app, only to realize that they’re accessing the most up-to-date information in the palm of their hand.
Aeromexico pilot tells a New Yorker to calm down, and it is not a good move.
Alaska misspoke about its merger with Hawaiian.
Breeze CEO David Neeleman says air travel is “unbelievably safe” and says that AI will only make it safer, forgetting that pilots really only use it to craft their “Welcome Aboard” announcements.
Delta is cutting service between Atlanta-Stuttgart and New York-JFK-Bogota. It is also giving away one SkyMile for every yard the Seahawks throw during the 2024-2025 NFL Season. To enter the giveaway, you must swear that you’re a Seahawks fan and make a pinky promise not to root for any other NFL team, at least until the post-season.
Frontier is happy to offer you a $75 credit if the passenger sitting next to you pees on your $120 shoes.
KLM took delivery of its first Airbus A321neo, marking its first delivery from the French manufacturer in nearly fifteen years.
Newark suffered a 5-minute radar outage last Tuesday and its controllers are pissed.
Southwest ramp personnel are ready to drive through walls when free snacks are in the breakroom.
SAS is offering a status match to everyone and their brother.
Ryanair has a new scheme to squeeze profit out of its customers: cap their drinks in the airport, but cash-in on onboard drink sales.
United is raising concerns with the DOT regarding the Alaska-Hawaiian merger.
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