Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: United Grows in Denver, Southwests Gets a Passing Grade

For United, Some Roads from Denver Lead to Rome

United Airlines announced eight new nonstop routes from its Denver hub this week including service to Rome/FCO. Rome is currently the largest unserved international market from Denver, and United will operate it next summer, beginning May 1 with daily seasonal service on its B787 Dreamliner. DEN will be United’s fifth U.S. gateway with service to Rome, joining Newark and Washington/Dulles which fly to FCO year-round, and seasonal flights from both Chicago/ORD and San Francisco.

That may be interesting, but to be honest… we buried the lede. The far more exciting additions from Denver include year-round, daily flights to Buffalo, Peoria, Redding, and Regina. Peoria — better known as the rest stop when driving between the Quad Cities and Indianapolis — begins March 30 while Regina starts on May 15 when the ice encasing the city has melted enough. The remaining two beginning May 22.

Three other nonstops from DEN will fly on a seasonal basis, operating in the summer only — daily flights to Pensacola and North Bend (OR), and Saturday-only flights to Wilmington, NC. The carrier will reserve the right to add other flights from Denver once it goes to the wall and collects the darts that ended nearest these eight cities and throw again.

Southwest Passes FAA Safety Review

Southwest Airlines emerged from a FAA safety review with no issues after an investigation by the oversight body into the carrier following several close-call incidents.

The airline did not emerge completely unscathed as the FAA found Southwest’s Salty Death Mix snack to be a choking hazard just by looking at the packet, much less opening it up and eating any of it. The government also found some Southwest passengers to be more likely to experience airsickness than on other airlines when forced to fly on planes with FAs who tell particularly bad jokes.

The review process began in July after incidents that included:

April: An aircraft dropping to just 400 feet off the coast of Hawai’i May: B737 MAX that experienced a “Dutch roll” at 34,000 feet — or as those in the Netherlands call it — “a roll” June: One flight taking off from a closed runway in Portland (ME) July: An aircraft flying at just 150 feet over Tampa Bay August: A customer with A45 as its boarding number stood between the A35 and A40 poles at a Southwest boarding gate in Fort Myers and attempted to board before those with A41-A44. Air Canada Moves 737s to Rouge

At Air Canada’s investor day it announced plans to transfer its entire fleet of B737 MAX aircraft to its Air Canada Rouge LCC subsidiary. AC currently operates 41 of the aircraft type with 12 more on order.

This comes as Air Canada seeks to grow Rouge with the expectation that the LCC will open a crew base by 2026 in Vancouver (BC not Washington). The carrier says this fleet swap will give it a better shot at competing with other leisure carriers with its Rouge brand as the 737 MAXs have a 20% lower CASM than its current A320-based fleet.

As for mainline Air Canada, the eventual removal of its MAX fleet will force it to pivot to the A220 and A321 plus the ex-Rouge A320s for its narrowbody operation. It currently has 30 A321XLRs on order with deliveries slated to begin as early as late next year. For more on this, please check out Thursday’s post from crankyflier.com.

Heathrow to Announces Nearly $3 Billion Upgrade

London/Heathrow will undergo a £2.3 billion upgrade program over the next two years after it received a £950 million investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

The airport claims that some of the money will be allocated to projects other than adding more duty free shops, extending the length of the walkway from the Heathrow Express to Terminal 2, and making gate assignment announcements as late as possible, but we have not received third-party confirmation as of press time. Heathrow officials say the investment will be used to make improvements across passenger terminals to include upgrades on its baggage delivery system.

This revenue will not go to LHR’s third runway project which has been on hold since receiving parliamentary approval in 2018. It may, however, be used to buy the eggs to throw at the houses of those who continue to oppose the project.

Delta Opens Sky Club in ChAArlotte

Delta Air Lines opened its newest Sky Club in Charlotte this week, with a 14,165-square foot space that has 246 seats, six soundproof booths, two beverage stations, and a partridge in a pear tree. The club is equipped with eight different signs that all say some version of “The Club is full right now so you can wait in this line looking like a sucker for 45 minutes or you can move on to your gate like a sane person,” and four check-in desks although only one will ever be staffed at any given time.

From Charlotte, Delta flies to seven of its hubs – Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis/St Paul, New York/JFK, New York/LGA, and Salt Lake City. This Sky Club is expected to give Delta passengers a chance to wait in line to access the club before doing so at their connecting airport as well while making most wonder why they took a connecting itinerary on Delta instead of a non-stop flight on American.

Air Astana will begin flying from Almaty to Frankfurt on June 1. Air Canada is adding five additional A220-300s. Air Congo is now a thing. Air Premia will begin Dreamliner service from Seoul/ICN to Seattle next year. ANA took full ownership of Peach Aviation. Delta is back in the NYC – Rio de Janeiro business — for northern winter at least. Edelweiss is adding seven this summer. Etihad is flying to Kenya. Finnair has a new A350 just in time for Christmas. Icelandair is now in the ITA business. Good luck. JSX is adding service to Carlsbad and Scottsdale from Oakland in March. Juneyao Air began flying 4x weekly Dreamliner service between Shanghai and Sydney, making it the ninth Chinese carrier to serve Australia. Once China gets to 12 carriers flying to Australia it gets a free medium soft drink with purchase. KLM is finally beginning service to Biarritz, Exeter, and Ljubljana. Korean will add six more A321 neos. LOT opened a new lounge at Chicago/O’Hare on Thursday. Lufthansa is adding five more A350-1000s. Luxair is adding two E195-E2s. Porter is adding service between Toronto/YYZ and Kelowna which we have confirmed is a real place. Qantas will set up an A$120 million (approximately $11.50) to compensate nearly 2,000 workers that it fired illegally at the start of the pandemic. Qatar is headed back to Canberra. SAS is headed to Seoul. SolitAir, your favorite Dubai-based cargo carrier, is flying between Dubai and Riyadh now. It’s a Christmas miracle. United will begin flying from its San Francisco hub to Panama City, Panama with daily, year-round service beginning May 22. Wizz Air is growing in Skopje.

What does Adam say on the night before Christmas?

It’s Christmas, Eve!

Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: United Grows in Denver, Southwests Gets a Passing Grade

Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: United Grows in Denver, Southwests Gets a Passing Grade

Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: United Grows in Denver, Southwests Gets a Passing Grade

Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: United Grows in Denver, Southwests Gets a Passing Grade

Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: United Grows in Denver, Southwests Gets a Passing Grade