It was another quiet week in Airlineville as that turkey hangover swept the town. That doesn’t mean nothing happened at all, but it means there just wasn’t much of substance going on. Quiet isn’t a bad thing.
The Cirium data shows that turkey doesn’t travel to the north. The Maple Leaf was busy. Then again, they were busy in Vegas as the Sun made summer plans. For the rest of the residents, it was a week of cleaning up after the holiday.
All this and more this week. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the skeds of air lines.
Air Canada Brings Down The First Four Months of 2022
Air Canada is hoping that it can better predict the future, so it’s bringing down January through April 2022 closer to reality. January was down 15 percent, February 19 percent, March 13 percent, and April 11 percent, putting them down 38 percent, 34 percent, 27 percent, and 17 percent respectively vs 2019.
As part of this, most markets see reduced service in the US. These are some notable markets that see suspensions extended:
- Calgary – Houston/IAH, Los Angeles, Newark
- Halifax – Sydney (Canada)
- Montreal – Dallas/Fort Worth
- Ottawa – Edmonton, Winnipeg
- Toronto – Baltimore, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Diego, Sarasota, Tokyo/Haneda; Vancouver – Newark
Alaska Makes Minor Tweaks
After last week’s action, this week was calm for Alaska. The airline is bumping up service in a couple markets, including LA – Honolulu and Palm Springs – Seattle. It also won’t fly from Portland to Redmond/Bend through the summer.
Allegiant Files Summer Schedule
Allegiant has rolled out its summer plans by filing schedules between May 18 and August 16, 2022. In each month, Allegiant will be about 30 percent above 2019 levels. The airline also made a few gauge changes in December and trimmed frequency on some routes in January.
American’s Small Change
American took one daily flight out for all or part of the spring in DFW – Billings and Bismarck. It also decided it had big plans for Wilmington, NC. That airport goes from 1x daily to 3x daily to Washington/National from April.
Delta Works on March
Delta brought March down by just over 3 percent, leaving it down 15 percent vs 2019. It was a broad cut, and one that saw suspensions of flying in several markets extended. That includes Atlanta – Rochester (MN); Boston – Buffalo, Norfolk; Detroit – La Crosse (WI); Minneapolis/St Paul – Great Falls, Marquette (MI); New York/JFK – San Antonio; and Salt Lake – Cleveland. Further, Atlanta – Rio will not operate during the summer.
In something of a surprise, Boston – Newark is coming back early with service now resuming in January.
Frontier Shuffles in Miami
Frontier made some changes to its Miami schedule. Flights are gone during various time periods from Albany, Buffalo, Chicago/O’Hare, Portland (ME), Rochester (NY), and San Jose (CR). It also looks like Newburgh/Stewart flights are gone for good. Miami will get some additional flying in existing markets of Baltimore, Boston, Cancun, Dallas/Fort Worth, Nassau, Norfolk, San Juan, and Santo Domingo.
Spirit Makes February More Accurate
It only pulled February down by 2 points, but February now looks more accurate for Spirit. Routes that will not operate during the month include Baltimore – Boston and Detroit, Denver – Los Angeles, and Minneapolis/St Paul – Detroit and Fort Lauderdale among others.
United Goes North
Last week I figured United wasn’t done growing Alaska next summer, but I didn’t think it would come this soon. United has now added 1x daily from Anchorage to Houston/IAH, Newark, and San Francisco. Meanwhile, Chicago/O’Hare will go up from 1x to 2x daily to Anchorage, and it will get a 1x daily Fairbanks flight.
Internationally, Hong Kong – Newark and San Francisco and Melbourne – LA and San Francisco will not fly through February. Neither will LA to San Pedro Sula.
Other Randomness
- Aer Lingus will bring Washington/Dulles – Dublin up from 1x to 2x daily next summer. Philly – Dublin will also come back early starting in April.
- Aeromexico has filed some growth in seats in many US markets for next summer. The only loser this week is Mexico City – JFK which will not have the 787.
- Azul will drop Fort Lauderdale – Campinas down from 1x daily to 5x weekly from February through June.
- Boutique ends Boston – Burlington (VT) service this month.
- Cape Air will fly from Burlington (IA) to both Chicago/O’Hare and St Louis starting in Feb.
- Copa will pause Boston – Panama City service from January 19 until June 2.
- Elite is doing something weird this winter. It has canceled Newark – St Augustine and Melbourne – Newark, but it has left the other direction in each. I assume there may be a round-robin filed or it was a mistake.
- Iberia will increase Madrid – Boston (5x -> 6x weekly during spring), LA (4x -> 5x weekly during summer), and San Juan (3x -> 5x weekly) for summer.
- Japan Airlines will extend its pandemic schedule through February. That means most beach markets stay suspended, and some mainland US flying shifts from Haneda to Narita.
- Jetstar won’t fly to Honolulu through February now.
- JetBlue canceled all flights from St Thomas to Boston, New York/JFK, and Newark starting in February and moved some capacity over to San Juan. The thing is, it didn’t cancel any of the southbound flights. I’m guessing this was a misfile.
- Lufthansa won’t fly Philly – Frankfurt in February.
- Qantas won’t start San Francisco – Brisbane until late March instead of February.
- SAS won’t fly Copenhagen – Boston and Stockholm – Chicago in February.
- Viva Air won’t fly from Orlando to Medellin into June now.
- WestJet has filed its new service from Calgary to London/Heathrow beginning at the end of March.
- ZipAir has pulled Honolulu and LA – Narita flights from the schedule in March. This feels like another misfile.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for next week’s exciting episode of Skeds of air Lines.