Just over a year after admitting publicly that the routes “often don’t earn enough cash to cover the price of fuel” American Airlines is officially surrendering its route authorities from Chicago-O’Hare to Beijing and Shanghai. Both Delta and United figure to gain significantly as a result.
Airplanes and Airports
Melted window grounds a 787
Breaking a brand new airplane never looks good for an airline. Doing it by melting a window out of the fuselage is even worse. Hopefully Turkish can get their first 787 fixed quickly and into service on time.
Joon’s failure had nothing to do with millennial marketing
On Wednesday afternoon the Air France experiment known as Joon officially ceased operations. Reading the post-mortem analysis suggests that Joon’s failure can be attributed to misguided marketing. Alas, marketing was never the problem for Joon. Neither were millennials.
JetBlue’s route shuffle: Big additions, little cuts
ANother route map shuffle is underway for JetBlue, with an unexpected route added in the Caribbean, a cross-town shift in Texas and a couple stations closing elsewhere in the network.
Air Canada, Transat finalize merger plans
Air Canada’s plans to acquire Air Transat moved forward this week, with the two companies announcing conclusion of a definitive agreement for their combination.
Chasing a Jumbo dream in St Vincent
The iconic shape, the stature it projects, the seemingly endless opportunities for connecting to the world. The tiny Caribbean island of St. Vincent is the latest to pursue those opportunities, though success is far from guaranteed.
Mitsubishi’s SpaceJet buys Bombardier’s support
We are mere months away from the production of the final CRJ passenger jet. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced this morning a deal to acquire Bombardier’s regional jet program, bringing it to a close as the SpaceJet will take its place.
Boom’s supersonic timing slips
Boom still plans to bring supersonic passenger flights back to the general public, just not as soon as previously predicted. And there are still a LOT of open questions about getting there at all.
Killing off Eurowings long haul
Can long-haul LCCs succeed in Europe? Perhaps so, but the Lufthansa Group will no longer be part of that effort. Eurowings is closing its longhaul routes down in an effort to simplify and streamline operations.
FAA declares no-go for Iranian airspace
The FAA is prohibiting flights over portions of Iranian airspace in a move that could further heighten tensions in the region.