Tragic Crash on Potomac, Frontier Tries Again for Spirit – Cranky Flier

American Flight 5342 Crashes with Helicopter on Approach at DCA

American Eagle Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ-700 with tail number N709PS, operated by American’s wholly-owned subsidiary PSA Airlines had a mid-air collision with a United States Army Sikorsky VH-60M Black Hawk just before 9 p.m. Wednesday night while the CRJ was on approach to Runway 33 at Washington/DCA.

The plane took off from Wichita without incident at 5:22 p.m. CT, beginning its journey to Washington. All 67 people on board both aircraft — 60 passengers, two FAs and two pilots on the CRJ and three crew on the Black Hawk are presumed dead at this time. This incident marks the first passenger aircraft hull loss in the U.S. since Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed on approach in Buffalo in February of 2009. It marked AA’s first fatal incident since its Flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff from New York/JFK on its way to Santo Domingo in November of 2001.

DC Fire and Emergency Services were on the scene shortly after the collision took place, and were joined by emergency response teams from both Virginia and Maryland. The first responders spent most of Wednesday night into Thursday morning searching for survivors in the Potomac amongst the crash debris. By Thursday morning the efforts of the department switched from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

Operations at DCA were suspended from the time of the incident through 11 a.m. Thursday. The airport was able to resume operations on its primary runway, 1/19, while the investigation and recovery efforts continue both at the airport and in the adjacent waters of the Potomac River.

Frontier’s Spirited New Frontier is Back

What’s old is new again, as Frontier Airlines is making another attempt to purchase Spirit, this time doing so while Spirit finds itself in the midst of a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Frontier’s current takeover attempt began on January 7, and Spirit quickly rejected the initial offer. Frontier first proposed a Spirit takeover as early as February 2022 and again last summer. Under the most recent offer, Spirit’s current debtholders would invest an additional $350 million to complete the bankruptcy process along with 10,000 units of BullBallz that had been stored on unused A319s in exchange for 19% of the combined carrier along with $400 million in debt equity. This offer is far worse than the 26.5% of the combined offer the two agreed to last summer prior to Spirit’s bankruptcy filing.

Frontier said the transaction “would provide meaningful value to Spirit financial stakeholders” and create a “stronger low-cost carrier” that would rescue Spirit from bankruptcy. The combined carrier would be the 5th largest in the United States if the merger were to go through, but unless Frontier dramatically ups its offer, the pair will remain seperate for the foreseeable future.

Southwest’s Earnings Exceed Expectations

Southwest Airlines earnings report was mostly positive as the carrier outpaced Wall Street’s expectations and foreasted a better than previously expected RASM for the first quarter of 2025. Costs continue to remain the big question mark.

Southwest announced $261 million in net income for the quarter and $465 million for the full year, coming on $6.9 billion and $27.5 billion of gross revenue, respectively. Its RASM for the fourth quarter of 2024 jumped 8% YoY, and it expects a 5%-7% bump (on reduced capacity) in first quarter RASM looking forward, compared to analysts prediction of a 2%-3% increase.

It’s not all good news as its CASM — RASM’s ugly cousin — is expected to jump as well, with Southwest predicting as much as a 9% increase in Q1 costs due to the rising costs of those cinnamon graham crackers.

On the delivery front, Southwest says it expects to receive 38 B737-8 MAXs from Boeing this year, just in time for them to join the extra legroom revolution.

JetBlue Loses $44 Million in Q4

JetBlue Airways Q4 earnings report showed a loss of $44 million during the final three months of the year on $2.3 billion of gross revenue, a 2.1% drop from a year ago. JetBlue stock lost more than a quarter of its value Tuesday, its biggest one-day loss in company history after its future outlook made investors feel… blue.

JetBlue says it cut costs in 2024 by nearly $200 million and will continue to find savings throughout its operation. For Q1 of this year, it’s predicting anywhere from a 0.5% loss to a 3.5% increase in unit revenue from Q1 last year. CEO Joanna Geraghty expects the airline to turn a profit of $900 million — by 2027. As for 2025, it’s expecting revenue to rise between 3% and 6% for the year while overall capacity remains steady.

The loss of $44 million for the quarter was a substantial improvement from Q4 last year in which it lost $104 million. For the entire year, the carrier finished with $9.2 billion in gross revenue, a 3.5% drop from ’23, and a net loss of $685 million, down 7.4%.

Appeals Court Blocks Service Fee Reveal

A previous DOT ruling which would require airlines to reveal service fees as part of upfront pricing was struck down by a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday, sending the rule back to the DOT for revision.

The ruling went into effect last April and required carriers to post baggage fees, change fees, and any other ancillary fee along with the fare at the beginning of the booking process — not at the end. The idea was to confuse the heck out of consumers during the entire booking process and not just during an opaque reveal at purchase — or afterwards.

Airlines resisted the ruling because it would be an extra layer of regulation (the out-loud part) and because it would potentially hurt their bottom lines (the not out-loud part). The appeals court ruled the DOT could theoretically require a disclosure like this, but in implementing this rule it did not permit airlines to review or comment on the effects.

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• airBaltic signed a strategic partnership to wet-lease up to five A220-300s to startup carrier SUA Líneas Aéreas that you didn’t even know existed (and possibly may not).
• Alaska FAs want to vote on an improved offer for a new contract.
• China Southern inked a codeshare agreement with Air Serbia.
• French Bee will buzz into Montréal in April, operating 4x weekly service from Paris/Orly, with the flight going 5x weekly during peak summer.
• Frontier‘s challenge to the DOT’s DCA slot awards is not making it a lot of friends.
• Gol scored an endorsement from the Brazilian government with regards to its merger with Azul.
• Icelandair is taking its talents to South Beach.
• JetBlue is offering some pilots an early retirement option, focused on pilots who will be 59 or older on March 31.
• KLM cut 250 jobs at his Amsterdam HQ.
• Korean took delivery of its first A350-900 earlier this week.
• Lufthansa will being offering free messaging on long-haul flights, making it easier to explain to your ride why you’re three hours late.
• Norse Atlantic will begin flying non-stop between Los Angeles and Athens.
• PIA is trying to get back into the UK.
• Porter will begin flying from Toronto to New York/LGA, marking LGA’s first new airline in seven years. It’s also adding service between Ottawa and Victoria to operate during the summer.
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