Nobody should be surprised to hear that Spirit has once again filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — unless the surprise was that it wasn’t a Chapter 7 liquidation. The fact that it happened just a few months after exiting Chapter 11 protection under a completely impossible plan is absolutely damning of the team that...| Cranky Flier
Frontier Smells ULCC Blood, Expands its Frontiers Frontier dropped 20 new routes into its network like confetti this week, spanning Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, and Houston, with a few international plays to Central America to complete the set. The airline says it’s about “serving the top 20 U.S. metros,” but let’s be real...| Cranky Flier
In a bold pronouncement, Frontier has come out saying that it “commits to being the #1 low fare carrier in the Top 20 U.S. metros.” This is highly unlikely to ever happen, but let’s be honest here. That is not Frontier’s goal. It just wants to kill Spirit — or at least squeeze it enough...| Cranky Flier
Oxnard (in California) is not a household name, but it is a spot I visited as a kid growing up in the San Fernando Valley. It was a quiet place where you could escape to the beach surrounded by agriculture and military, and it felt like a world away. So, we did an extended-family trip...| Cranky Flier
Delta last week announced it would continue its slow growth of Austin as a focus city, adding three new destinations while cutting one as it looks to cement its position as a clear number two behind Southwest. This, of course, follows American’s failed efforts to do the same coming out of the pandemic. Having two...| Cranky Flier
Spirit Airlines is on shakier ground after avoiding hard decisions in bankruptcy – CNBCSpirit continues to teeter, most recently agreeing to extend its credit card processor agreement but only after giving up millions to make it happen. The struggle continues.| Cranky Flier
Alaska’s New Loyalty Scheme Alaska must have gotten a 2-for-1 deal with its consultants that come up with its new livery for long-haul flying because where else could Atmos Rewards come from? Or maybe we’re just sour that our suggestions of MileageMiles or Hawaiian Plan were not selected. Either way, the general consensus is that...| Cranky Flier
Alaska and Hawaiian officially rolled out their new combined loyalty program yesterday called Atmos Rewards. In short, the program largely stays similar to what Alaska Mileage Plan had before. I’m not here to give you a summary — you can find that anywhere. Instead, I want to talk about one change in particular: the ability...| Cranky Flier
Cranky Dorkfest is less than a month away on September 13 (full details here), and I have two updates for you: 1) The Importance of Your RSVP Did you RSVP yet to attend Cranky Dorkfest? If so, you aren’t alone. There are currently 620 names on the list, which is pretty great. Unfortunately, the morning...| Cranky Flier
I’ve had a lot of offline discussion about aircraft configuration and premium focus as of late, so I decided it was time to dive into the details to see just how things have changed at different airlines over the past decade. I unquestionably expected we’d see differences, but, well, I did not expect them to...| Cranky Flier
Southwest extended its schedule from early March to early April last week. Sure it included a new city — Knoxville — but the real news was buried in the weeds. Even though capacity is basically flat in March vs last year, the underlying schedule has changed somewhat dramatically. There are now four connecting hubs for the airline in the middle of the country, and they all work together.| Cranky Flier
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Why Cheap Airline Seats Are Getting Harder to Find – The Wall Street Journal (Subscription required)The numbers suggest that fares are starting to rebound for the airlines, but I gave the opposite opinion for this story. I don’t think things are likely to recover as quickly as airlines are hoping. The economy is on some...| Cranky Flier
Book Now on Spirit, While Supplies Last Spirit Airlines said in its recent 10-Q that there’s “substantial doubt” it can survive the next 12 months, which is a another way to warn us for “we might not be here by next summer, so don’t buy gift cards.” The yellow-liveried ULCC posted a $246 million loss...| Cranky Flier
The roller coaster ride that has defined Spirit over the last five years appears to be coming to an end. After pioneering the ultra low cost carrier (ULCC) model in the US, the airline rose quickly and then fell hard. It was never able to turn a profit after the pandemic, and it filed for...| Cranky Flier
Northwest Airlines was an absolutely ruthless competitor, and I mean that in the best way. With its hubs in Detroit and Minneapolis/St Paul, Northwest dominated the upper Midwest, and it felt compelled to extend its domain into a sphere of influence out beyond its hubs and into markets from Fargo to Indianapolis. This “Heartland” strategy...| Cranky Flier
It may still be summer, but American is already talking about talking NEXT summer. The airline put out its plans for new routes next year, and they fall into three unsurprising buckets. For the most part, this isn’t a big blitz with new, creative routes. It’s a lot of connecting the dots and returning to...| Cranky Flier
And just like that… Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport is back! We couldn’t be happier to have them return to sponsor the Cranky Weekly Review for another year. And really, nobody is happier than Andrew, who is thrilled to once again have regular meals and occasional baseball games. Alaska Goes Transatlantic, Buys Itself a Dream(liner)...| Cranky Flier
July 29 marked the beginning of the end for Southwest’s bingo boarding system. That day, the airline started assigning seats, and yes, the plan appears to have changed yet again from the last update I wrote in April. This is a momentous occasion for the airline, and I thought it worthy of a deep dive...| Cranky Flier
Alaska continues its metamorphosis into a premium global carrier today by announcing a couple of new routes as well as a new livery that will apply only to the B787 fleet. The airline is really trying to walk a fine line here between brand consistency and brand confusion. and it remains to be seen if...| Cranky Flier
IMPORTANT UPDATE on Aug 11: The LAX ramp visit has reached its capacity of 500 people. Please continue to RSVP and you will be put on a waitlist and notified if you clear. There is no limit for the main event. I’ve received plenty of emails from all of you, and I know that you’ve...| Cranky Flier
Are Global Entry and TSA PreCheck Losing Their Value? – TravelPulseTSA Precheck and Global Entry have been well worth it for years, but is that changing? With new options for regular travelers, Global Entry in particular is losing its luster. I’m not sure I’d even bother getting it today if I didn’t already have it....| Cranky Flier
We at Cranky Weekly Review are unexpectedly looking for a new lucky title sponsor to support the cause. For as little as a few sawbucks a day, you can help make sure that Andrew gets fed breakfast and an occasional dinner. This will also allow us to let him out of his cage to watch a baseball game every so often. | Cranky Flier
I’ve already told you about my big, fancy jet flights on Alaska, but if you need a runway, you aren’t doing real flying. Once we arrived in Seattle, we went to lunch at a brewery on Lake Union, and then we headed over to Kenmore Air’s terminal on the lake for a seaplane ride to...| Cranky Flier
People in the US may not think of Wizz Air often, but when they do… they think about having to go to the bathroom. If they pay attention to the airline industry, however, they more likely think about the biggest, shining star of the Indigo Partners portfolio. That may be the reputation, but Wizz has...| Cranky Flier
American recently announced that it was launching a trial of something called One Stop Security (OSS). This is the latest in a string of trials American has participated in with the US government, and this has the potential to be the most important one yet. The only problem? I still don’t understand how this can...| Cranky Flier
Can’t Get No Seatisfaction — Southwest Unveils Seating Plan After 54 years of Southwest’s official seating policy of “sit wherever, good luck,” the end is nigh. This Tuesday, July 29 is when Southwest customers will be required to choose a seat at the time of booking, for flights beginning January 27. “Our customers want more...| Cranky Flier
I know we’re well into Q2 earnings season, but I’m gonna go back a quarter one more time. I’ll admit it. I was kind of lazy. After the Department of Transportation (DOT) released Q1 2025 numbers, I created a post showing the airline changes in unit revenue and capacity in order to show how each...| Cranky Flier
Nobody can be surprised to hear that the US government is getting tough on Mexico. After all, we live in an “America First” kind of world these days, for better or worse. The problem with this kind of dogmatic stance, however, is that if followed too rigidly, it can punish the wrong people. And that...| Cranky Flier
With my daughter at camp for two weeks and my son on an adventure with my parents, my wife and I had about 10 days all alone for the first time in ages. So, we decided to go visit some friends who lives on Orcas Island in the San Juans, so far north that it...| Cranky Flier
TSA rule change on shoes might mean the end of 3 ounce liquid restriction and more – KJZZ The ShowI returned to The Show to talk about the end of the shoe rule at TSA, but what I forgot to say is this is especially great for those in Arizona who wear flip flops to...| Cranky Flier
United Posts Nearly $1B Profit, Quietly Hands $561M to Keep Flight Attendants from Revolting United Airlines had a decent Q2 by normal standards — $973 million in profit, $3.87 adjusted EPS, and $15.2 billion in revenue –but the real highlight was a $561 million “please don’t hate us” check to its flight attendants. That one-time...| Cranky Flier
Earlier this week, Avelo announced that it would be fully abandoning its West Coast network. With the airline packing up and heading east, the question was thick in the air… would anyone bother to step in? The answer is yes. There is a Breeze a-blowin’. Avelo’s West Coast experiment never quite worked, but it wasn’t...| Cranky Flier
While I was gone on vacation, the first quarter DB1B data came out from government, so we can finally get a more granular look at what happened to the industry’s revenue at the beginning of this year. Overall, it was not good. But there were brightspots like Southwest and even Frontier. On the flip side? Avelo had the worst performance by far.| Cranky Flier
When I took a look at how the interisland market has evolved in Hawaiʻi, several of you wanted to see a similar peek at the transcon market. Ask and ye shall receive. There is no market more important market in the United States than the New York/JFK – Los Angeles route. It’s a huge market...| Cranky Flier
And we’re back! Hope you didn’t miss us too much while we were on vacation this week. We’re now back to the regular posting schedule.| Cranky Flier
We’re coming to you one day early this week, because nobody wants to work on Independence Day. I mean, come on. We have hot dogs to grill. But we’re actually extending this celebration through the next week when Brett is on vacation. (You may have noticed that The Air Show is taking off this week...| Cranky Flier
Flash back about 15 years, and Iberia was a joke. It was busy flying a fleet of gas-guzzling four-engine widebodies along with some Airbus narrowbodies and a lot of turboprops from its Madrid and Barcelona hubs as ultra low cost carriers easily came and took share. The airline’s costs were high, and it was losing...| Cranky Flier
Sometimes watching Spirit work feels like watching someone rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. The recent announcement that the airline would be renaming its fare bundles felt like yet another prime example until I looked deeper. There is some substance here in that one bundle is now gone, and another is altered. I can’t say...| Cranky Flier
The Best Airports in the US…and the Worst – BottomLineI did a long interview with someone from BottomLine asking about features of the best and worst airports. This is the list they came up with from that conversation, and they apparently flagged me as the author. This list is hard, because it depends on each...| Cranky Flier
Spirit’s Spirited Objection to JetBlue & United’s Budding Friendship| Cranky Flier
United and JetBlue carefully crafted their Blue Sky partnership to avoid any regulatory concerns. The airlines aren’t codesharing, there is no pricing or schedule coordination, and in general, they’ve followed the guidance that the judge who shot down the Northeast Alliance (NEA) between American and JetBlue gave on how to construct a legal partnership. But...| Cranky Flier
Yesterday I talked about how Delta had lost its interisland partner in Hawaiʻi, but then I wondered just how much of a problem that would be. That took me down a rabbit hole where I looked at just how much the interisland market has changed in the past 30 years. That’s what we’ll look at...| Cranky Flier
Delta quietly posted on its airline partner page that its loyalty partnership with Hawaiian Airlines will be ending on June 30. This is no surprise, but it would seemingly put a little hole in Deltaʻs network. Or does it? Interisland partnerships donʻt matter nearly as much as they used to, and I ended up deep in the weeds looking at how this market need has shifted over time. How deep? Well, this is going to be a two-parter.| Cranky Flier
Want to fly in a fancy seat for less? Try this hack. | Cruising Altitude – USA TodayI hate how click-baity this headline is, but if you can get beyond it… this is a look at how to find a widebody on a domestic flight. The idea is that if you buy premium cabin, you’ll...| Cranky Flier
Turns Out Running a Beach Hotel is Less Profitable Than Running a 2x Weekly Beach Flight In the least surprising plot twist since it connected Bismarck with Las Vegas, Allegiant is reportedly in talks to offload its Sunseeker Resort in a Florida swamp — the crown jewel of its “what if an airline travel company...| Cranky Flier
The day I was flying up to San Francisco, Alaska had a total of 108 flights solely-within California on 15 distinct routes. Only four of those flights were operated by mainline aircraft. There’s one roundtrip from both San Diego and Orange County to San Francisco. That’s it. So it seemed like a fun opportunity to fly mainline for the quick trip up north as my elite status quest continues. (This trip did not make me feel any better about it.)| Cranky Flier
Over Memorial Day weekend, American filed its “overlay” for post-Labor Day travel through September. This is the schedule the airline intends to fly, fixing the existing placeholder schedule which had been in place in some form since those travel dates went on sale, about 11 months prior to travel. There wasn’t anything particularly note-worthy about this schedule, but it seemed like a great opportunity for me to look at exactly how this process has changed in recent times. After all, s...| Cranky Flier
Wexford Capital is back, and that’s a name you might remember from the past. The company is a bottom-feeding private equity investment firm that has put money into a variety of airlines when they’re bankrupt or restructuring. They’ve now one it again with Silver Airways, but this was certainly a different kind of deal. Instead of trying to fix the airline at this point, it decided the parts were worth more than the whole. And now Silver will not fly again.| Cranky Flier
Air India Flight Crashes on Takeoff| Cranky Flier
Month: June 2025| crankyflier.com
Piedmont has long seemed like an airline living on borrowed time. For years it was the airline flying the smallest and least desirable fleets. On more than one occasion, it seemed like its time was up, but it never was. And once again, the airline has avoided death as it has received an allotment of Embraer 175s from its parent, American. The mighty Pacemaker lives on… well, sort of.| Cranky Flier
Month: March 2025| crankyflier.com
When Avelo decided to relocate airplanes to Phoenix/Mesa and operate deportation flights for the federal government, you probably saw the headlines raking the airline over the coals.| Cranky Flier
I am always fascinated by New York’s JFK International Airport. It’s one of the rare examples in the US — the only example? — that has multiple private operators running different terminals. And in the past, that has made for some very strange bedfellows. But the airport’s $19 billion plan to remake itself is finally showing how most airline locations are starting to fall into place. The recent addition of United to Terminal 6 as part of its JetBlue deal just cements it even further.| Cranky Flier
American’s inaugural flight on its new 787-9, internally called the 787-9P, was from Chicago to Los Angeles this week. While the airplane was on the ground at LAX on its turn, I was invited to come and take a look.| Cranky Flier
IndiGo Goes Towards SkyTeam| Cranky Flier
This week on The Air Show, we are talking about JetZero and its proposed aircraft. With the episode just going live — if you don’t see it, keep refreshing — I’m putting up a bonus Thursday post with some visual aids that will help you understand what we’re talking about. You really have to see it, I think.| Cranky Flier
When Alaska announced that its first European route would be from Seattle to Rome/FCO next summer, there was some head-scratching all around. This is an airline that’s a member of oneworld. Wouldn’t it have chosen something with more connectivity? One of the most important European capitals? The only real reason that could be gleaned was that CEO Ben Minicucci was thrilled to be able to call his Italian mother to tell her that Rome was coming.| Cranky Flier
If you’ve left a comment in the last couple of days, you may have noticed some, uh, turbulence. See, the company that has powered my comment emails for years, Postmatic, seems to have just disappeared. All of a sudden, it stopped working. I sent a help request and heard nothing back. So, I had to scramble to find an alternative. While I was doing that, I found something that you’ve all been asking about for ages… the ability to edit.| Cranky Flier
The worst-kept secret in the industry finally became officialy last week when United and JetBlue announced the launch of their Blue Sky partnership. The headlines were about what I expected, but there were some interesting nuggest buried in the release. I spoke with JetBlue President Marty St George to get the story.| crankyflier.com
I have never cared about elite status, not even a little bit. Would an upgrade be nice? Sure, but I don’t travel enough to have high enough status to think that I’d ever actually get one. And I’m not tall, so I really don’t care much about extra legroom either. Living in Southern California, there are different airlines that are better for different routes. It has never made sense to chase elite status on just one.| Cranky Flier
Summer Perspectives: Is US Growth Slowing Down or Speeding Up? – OAG| Cranky Flier
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I’ve long had an unhealthy fascination with airline schedule change policies. I think it’s because they tend to reflect the personality of the airline itself in funny ways. But ever since the Department of Transportation pushed through new rules on refunds, Delta’s policy has stood out for being the complete and total opposite of what people think when they fly Delta. It is unfair to the traveler, and I imagine that this will drive up volume to the call center where a sympathetic age...| Cranky Flier
Avelo Gets Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place| crankyflier.com
JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes recently announced that he would step down on February 12 after a nearly 9 year run. His long-time lieutenant Joanna Geraghty will take the reins, and oh boy, does she have a big job ahead of her.| Cranky Flier
Southwest was a news machine last week. After posting a bad quarter with an even worse outlook, it announced redeyes and most importantly, the introduction of assigned seating along with an extra legroom section. This is all good — well, except for the current results and outlook — but we still don’t know much about how this is going to be implemented. Let’s talk about that.| Cranky Flier
On July 19, the world learned the name CrowdStrike. That day, the company had uploaded a corrupted update to its clients’ computers that use the Windows operating system, and those computers immediately turned into bricks. This instantly made CrowdStrike the villain of every news article, but as the days went on, it was Delta that took over that role. Now, as Delta’s operations have returned to normal, we can look back and see… what a terrible job this airline did navigating the crisis....| Cranky Flier
It’s been talked about for eons, and now, it is actually happening. Southwest is going to start its first redeyes on February 13 with an arrival on Valentine’s Day in the first five markets. I spoke with COO Andrew Watterson to learn more about the airline’s plan.| Cranky Flier
As we discussed yesterday, in the long-haul market, premium upsell options have long been part of the game, but in the short-haul market, that has not been the case. It wasn’t all that long ago that airlines almost exclusively sold coach seats. Most of those people sitting in First Class were upgrades. This has changed dramatically, and the announcements of expanded premium offerings just keep coming.| Cranky Flier
The announcements seem to be coming fast and furious. Coming out of the pandemic, people have shown a rapidly-increasing willigness to pay up for more comfort and a better experience on airplanes. This is nothing new in the world of long-haul flying, but on shorter hauls, it is quickly creating the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Now it’s the latter group that is trying to play catch-up.| Cranky Flier
Alaska announced its Q2 earnings yesterday, and the results were predictably very good. The airline beat estimates and came through with a 15.8 percent margin while running a solid operation. Sure, Q3 guidance was softer, but it has been for everybody and there’s some noise in there anyway. The reality is that Alaska just continues to do well… most of the time.| Cranky Flier
There is much to be written on what has happened to the ultra low-cost carriers in a post-pandemic world. We will probably see some not-so-great results when Frontier and Spirit report Q2 numbers soon. While we all know that United CEO Scott Kirby has said their days are numbered, it is far more nuanced than that. We are working on an episode of The Air Show which will go deeper into this, but today, I just want to focus on one issue: route overlap.| Cranky Flier
As I mentioned in my trip report last week, I flew into SFO on a recent trip to the Bay Area but back out of Oakland. This wasn’t by design, but since I knew they were both pretty easy options from the city, I felt comfortable choosing the best flight times/prices out of either airport. Once we settled on going into one and out of the other, I knew it would be worth a comparison post. Let’s get it on.| Cranky Flier
My wife and I had to do a quick trip up to San Francisco for a Saturday night event. Fares were high, and schedule options were fewer than I’d expected. In the end, the best flights involved flying into San Francisco and out of Oakland. This gave me a great opportunity to compare the commute, but I’ll do that on Monday. For now, let’s talk about the somewhat unimpressive flight experiences themselves.| Cranky Flier
The federal government has been hemming and hawing for a long time, and now it appears poised to take action. Specifically, I’m talking about the Part 135/380 loophole that has allowed companies like JSX, Aero, and Contour to flourish. This may sound like bad news for those airlines, and for some it will be. But this isn’t as straightforward as it may seem.| Cranky Flier
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For the last year and a half, American has been involved in a war against travel agencies, companies, and travelers themselves over how and where they can book their travel. General Vasu Raja led the fight, and, well, he lost. Badly. Now President Robert Isom has removed General Vasu from his post, as he tries to salvage the war effort.| Cranky Flier
The news that activist investor Elliott has taken a greater than 10 percent stake in Southwest Airlines has been the talk of the town this week. The more discussions I’ve had with people about this — and there have been so many — the more I’m convinced that the cynical take on this whole thing is the right one. Elliott is not here to actually fix Southwest.| Cranky Flier
There is no LUV for Southwest Airlines management this week as activist investor Elliott has taken more than a 10 percent stake in the airline and wants to fire Chairman Gary Kelly and CEO Bob Jordan. If you thought Carl Icahn’s investment in JetBlue was going to be a big fight, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This is going to get ugly. So far, I am not impressed by Elliott’s take, but if this does push Southwest to act more quickly, then everyone wins.| Cranky Flier
The big news last week was that American Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja was pushed out and CEO Robert Isom promised to backtrack on much of what had been done in the sales and distribution world under Vasu’s reign. Some may have celebrated, suggesting that things would go back to the way they were.| Cranky Flier
Two weeks ago, the rumors began to swirl. American Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja was out. Or he was at least taking a leave of absence. Or he was working from home. Something was going on, and people in the know began talking. The saga has now ended after a fortnight. Vasu was unceremoniously booted from his job this week. While many of the policies that Vasu drove have not delivered, the ultimate blame has to lie with his boss, CEO Robert Isom.| Cranky Flier
Last week, I was supposed to be with some friends hiking around Molokai, but Mother Nature had other plans. The abnormal deluge that soaked Molokai and the western islands killed our plans, so we postponed the trip. Unfortunately, that meant I wasn’t able to make the interviews I had lined up in Honolulu before heading back home. But don’t worry, video calls saved the day.| Cranky Flier
Disclosure: Icelandair provided the flights and lodging for this trip| Cranky Flier
Do you like Andrew’s Moment of Levity? No you don’t. You LOVE it. And since it’s the most important thing you read every week, I have good news for you. It is going to continue for another year thanks to the newly-christened San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport extending its sponsorship of the Cranky Weekly Review.| Cranky Flier
There are certain events that really make you step back and realize just how quickly time passes. My recent 20th grad school reunion fits into that bucket. Most of us look older, but it’s incredible how we all fall right back into it as if no time has passed at all. I don’t go to my high school or undergrad reunions, but I have never missed a Stanford one, and I wasn’t about to break that streak now.| Cranky Flier
