Forget the fight over who gets the arm rests; middle seats on planes are now generating real fights over if they should be occupied at all. And airlines are fueling the flames with misleading marketing messaging.
Cape Air’s ugly April stats (and some possible good news for May)
Total flights down by 40%. Passenger count down by 90%. Load factor for the month of just 8%. Needless to say, Cape Air’s statistics for April 2020 are pretty awful, just like the rest of the aviation world. But the airline has some potential good news to consider as it looks to a slow summer and beyond.
Project Wingman USA Opens Lounges for Frontline Healthcare Heroes at Two Major New York City Hospitals
Project Wingman USA opened its two inaugural “First Class Lounges” this week, offering respite for frontline healthcare professionals. The program allows airline crew to offer peer support to medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Weekly Wrap: Fighting for Middle Ground
This week’s episode is all about the middle seat. Should it be blocked? How would airlines approach that task? And one briefly tried to charge passengers for that luxury, though quickly backed down when politicians got angry.
JetBlue delays London launch
JetBlue still intends to launch service to Europe. CEO Robin Hayes believes that “the need for us to enter that market and bring more competition” remains relevant. Just don’t expect it to happen quite so soon, and that may be a good thing.
JetBlue suspends six cities through June
With approval to reduce service to as many as 16 airports in its network JetBlue is taking a measured approach. The carrier will suspend service to six of these airports beginning next week through the end of June.
Astronics feels the pain of production, retrofit slowdowns
As a key supplier of systems for commercial aircraft production and retrofit work it is no surprise that Astronics will see a significant hit to its revenue in 2020. The company is not providing formal guidance, but in its quarterly earnings call this week CEO Peter Gundermann spoke to some of the numbers and just how bad the situation looks.
United plans to resume (cargo for now) Hong Kong-Singapore service
In 2017 United Airlines dropped its long-running service between Singapore and Hong Kong, choosing to fly passengers nonstop between Singapore and the US West Coast instead. That plan appears to be changing, as the carrier requested DOT permission for daily (cargo to start) service between the two cities as soon as this coming Sunday.
IATA recommends against blocked middle seats, favors "layered" protections
How can airlines best ensure the safety of their passengers on board? Airline trade group IATA used its weekly briefing to highlight several factors that play into the reduction of potential virus transmission with blocking middle seats seen as a wholly unnecessary measure, so long as other practices are followed.
JetBlue, Spirit score exemptions to drop service at major US airports
JetBlue and Spirit Airlines received permission to remove as many as 16 destinations from their route US networks and still maintain compliance with the CARES Act. This lets the airlines reduce their service while still remaining eligible for the Payroll Support Program grants that help fund employee costs through 30 September 2020. Both airlines are permitted to halt service to their approved destinations immediately.