We’re a day later than usual this week, but at some point today, the latest Air Show will be live with two, two, TWO topics instead of one. First, Brian and Jon talk through what Bryan Bedford being nominated to be FAA administrator means. Then Brian and I talk about the truth behind Spirit’s bankruptcy. Spoiler alert: my post on Monday was wrong, so if that interested you, you’ll want to listen in.
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The Night the Lights Went Out in…London
London/Heathrow was forced to close Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation caused a power outage at the airport and around 16,000 homes in the surrounding area.
UK energy minister Ed Miliband described the fire as catastrophic, saying that the flames also took out the airport’s backup generator. The British government spent much of the morning trying to activate a backup to the backup to restore power to the airport — or at least the duty free shops — as quickly as possible.
LHR will remain closed through Friday (7 p.m. ET), with all flights in and out of the airport canceled. Approximately 125 flights were in the air to Heathrow at the time of the incident and had to be diverted or return to their original airport.
A total of 679 arrivals and 678 departures were canceled for the rest of the day. Most airlines declined comment on the incident, encouraging passengers to check their website or app for updated flight information, but one airline was willing to go on the record. “All of a sudden Stansted doesn’t seem so far away from central London, does it,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary was quoted as asking. “Once your plane returns to Budapest or Lisbon instead of getting to London, those ‘alternate airports’ that aren’t on fire sure do look more appealing, don’t they?”
Bryan Bedford Nominated to Lead FAA
Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford is the president’s pick to lead the FAA, as the more than 30-year veteran of the industry awaits confirmation from the Senate to begin his new role. The role has been vacant since January when then-administrator Mike Whitaker resigned with almost four years remaining on his five-year term.
Bedford has led Republic for more than 25 years, joining the carrier in July of 1999. Prior to that, he led two other carriers — Mesaba and Business Express. A devout Catholic, Bedford is hoping that prayer will fix the country’s ailing air traffic control system… something that is significantly more likely to work than Congress actually doing anything about it.
Both Bedford and Republic pushed for the FAA to make an exception to its 1,500 hours of flight time requirement back in 2022, arguing that pilots trained at its flight academy should be able to qualify with closer to 800 hours and would ease the shortage of pilots at the regional carrier level. The FAA denied the request — something which could be revisited should Bedford be confirmed into the role.
When asked if the president nominated Bedford because he’s spent the last 25 years at Republic Airways, and that the president mistakenly thought that mean he had been working for the Republican Party, the White House declined comment.
Frontier, American Poke at Southwest
Frontier and American both took aim at Southwest fliers this week, starting with Frontier announcing a promo where it offers its economy bundle — which includes a free carry-on, free seat selection, and free flight changes — for all bookings between March 18 and August 18. And for flights between May 28 and August 18 that are booked by March 24, it’ll throw in a free bag. The date the promo begins is not a coincidence — as May 28 is also the date that Southwest’s bag fees will go into effect.
American followed suit on Thursday, announcing a status match — A-List members can match to AAdvantage Platinum and A-List Preferred can match to AAdvantage Platinum Pro. Both of these are one tier status higher than AA usually offers Southwest elites, and the status is awarded at the time of the match — for four months. It will also come with a status challenge that would award the loyalty level for the rest of the year.
While AA and Frontier might be the first to take aim at disgruntled Southwest customers, they certainly won’t be the last, with rumors in industry circles abounding that both Air Koryo and Conviasa are also planning at taking aim at WN customers with offers of open seating, free checked bags, and limitless possibilities.
Air France-KLM Considers Air Europa
Air France-KLM is in discussions to purchase a portion of Spain’s third largest carrier, Air Europa. The airline, which has its largest hub in Madrid has been a SkyTeam member since September of 2007.
IAG – the BA-led airline group which includes Air Europa’s Spanish rival in Iberia announced its intention to purchase the airline for just more than $1 billion late in 2019, just in time for the pandemic to scuttle those plans. The two sides ended their merger plans in November of 2021. IAG then agreed to buy the carrier again — this time in February of 2023 — for $400 million — before the European Commission’s antitrust concerns led to the deal ending again.
Air France says that while it’s willing to begin with smaller stakes in potential merger partners, the eventual goal is to fully integrate these smaller carriers into the Air France-KLM family.
Allegiant Exits Five
Allegiant is ending service to five airports where it had already suspended flying, making its exit permanent in Baltimore, El Paso, Grand Junction (CO), Gulfport, and San Antonio.
The carrier had operated to Baltimore and El Paso since 2016, flying to random cities where it happened to find it had airplanes lying around, especially from Florida. The carrier operated to GJT as far back as 2012 with flights to Phoenix/Mesa, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Orange County.
Luckily for Allegiant fans everywhere, it continues to operate its Sunseeker resort in Florida, and will fly you from one mid-tier or below city to another two or three times a week, just not to or from Baltimore.
- Aegean is adding eight more A321neos.
- Air France is putting fancy new seats in the front of some of its airplanes.
- Air India is buying airplanes. Probably.
- Air New Zealand has been besties with Singapore for 10 years now.
- AirAsia is adding a new “survival of the fittest” service from Kuala Lumpur to Darwin.
- airBaltic didn’t purchase Russian fuel. It pinky swears.
- Asiana is reducing frequencies to Rome, Frankfurt and Paris, allowing t’way to take over some of the service as part of its antitrust settlement to merge with Korean.
- avianca and TAP opened a joint lounge in Miami.
- Emirates is expanding its A350 network.
- Ethiopian has a new agreement with Etihad.
- JAL is buying 17 more B737-8s.
- JSX is adding four.
- LAM‘s lone B737-700 is no longer on the lam.
- LATAM wants to add Argentina service to its JV with Delta.
- LOT is being pursued by Airbus.
- Malaysia is ordering 30 B737 MAX aircraft.
- Nepal Airlines still has two MA060s and three Y12s its trying to get rid of…if you’re in the market, let them know.
- Porter is expanding its loyalty offerings to include Alaska and Air Transat.
- Somon Air is back in the Kyrgyzstan game.
- Southwest Flight 3278 to Albany averted a possible disaster Thursday morning in Orlando when the flight crew mistakenly attempted to take off from a taxiway.
- Star Alliance has a new rail partner.
- TAP turned 80.
- t’way is adding to its B737-8 f’leet. It’s also losing its C’EO.
- Uganda Airlines will fly to London.
- United FAs would like more money. Don’t we all.
- WestJet Cargo will sell Virgin Atlantic’s cargo capacity between Toronto and London.
How excited was the gardener about the first day of spring?
So excited he wet his plants.
