USA: Southwest, Delta, American, Korean And Alaska Drop And Open New Routes

Alaska Airlines will drop a Midwest route from San Francisco; Southwest hints at Hawaii and begins new service out of Los Angeles and Denver; American will fly a new transpacific route temporarily and adds a pair of domestic routes.

Korean plans to add a new U.S. gateway; and Frontier begins code-sharing to Mexico and announces another spate of new routes.

Last fall, Alaska Airlines started service between San Francisco and Indianapolis. And this fall, it will drop that route, effective September 30.

There has been lower than expected demand for these flights and we need to utilize this aircraft to add capacity on other routes, said a spokesperson of Alaska Airlines.

This change is another example of how we are looking across the network and making some tough decisions to ensure we are running as efficient of an operation as possible, so we can continue to offer our customers low fares. Alaska will continue to operate its Seattle-Indianapolis service.

The SFO-Indianapolis route is also served by United with it's cleverly numbered Flight 500, and Southwest has nonstop service between Oakland and Indianapolis.

Southwest made a few more hints this week about its new Hawaii service, revealing details such as its plans to serve meals on flights to and from the mainland.

Schedules are expected to be announced in October with flights starts a few weeks later, we predict November timeframe. Flights will have satellite based wi-fi and movies, too. No word on fares yet.

Southwest Airlines this week kicked off its newest transcontinental non-stop, with daily service between Los Angeles International and Tampa. The LAX-Tampa route is also served by Delta and Spirit Airlines. And at Denver, Southwest this week started new daily non-stops to Cincinnati.

For 10 days in January, American Airlines' usual Chicago O'Hare-Tokyo Narita non-stop will operate via an intermediate stop in Las Vegas.

American said that from January 4 to 14, the daily 787-8 LAS-NRT flight will be marketed by its joint venture partner Japan Airlines to carry passengers to and from the giant Consumer Electronics Show. JAL will continue to offer its own daily non-stops between Chicago and Tokyo during that period.

Meanwhile, American will add a couple of new domestic routes in the months ahead. On November 4, it will launch one daily roundtrip between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Cheyenne, Wyoming, operated by Skywest with a CRJ-200.

On December 22, it will begin one flight a week between its Charlotte hub and New Haven, flown by PSA Airlines with a CRJ-200.

Korean Air is coming to Boston next spring, with plans to begin Boston-Seoul Incheon service five days a week beginning April 12. Korean will use a 787-9 on the route, equipped with six first class suites, 18 lie-flat seats in business class and 245 seats in the main cabin.

Korean will operate the route as part of its joint venture partnership with Delta, which recently announced plans to launch its own new service to Seoul from Minneapolis-St. Paul beginning in 2019.

Later this month, Frontier Airlines and Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris will begin a massive program of code-sharing that will put Frontier's code onto 51 routes operated by Volaris and will see the Mexican carrier's code go onto 120 routes operated by Frontier.

The new code-sharing will apply to Volaris flights from San Francisco to Mexico City and Guadalajara, and San Jose to Guadalajara, Morelia and Zacatecas, among many others.

Meanwhile, Frontier has announced another spate of new domestic routes, mostly starting in mid-November. From Phoenix, Frontier will begin new service to Norfolk, Ft. Myers, Grand Rapids and Madison. From Tucson, it will add service to Denver.

At Tampa, Frontier will start flying to Syracuse, Grand Rapids, Portland (Maine), Norfolk, and Greenville, S.C. And at Ft. Myers, it will kick off seasonal service to Albany, Las Vegas, Phoenix., Portland (Maine), Salt Lake City and Syracuse.

Most of the new routes will offer two or three flights a week.


Tourism Observer

USA: United To Fly New 737 MAX 9s From SFO And LAX To Hawaii.

United will drop a transcontinental route from San Jose, add some domestic regional markets, and start flying new 737MAX9s to Hawaii from the West Coast.

Delta will start service between two business centers, add a Mexico route and increase Havana flights; JetBlue expands Mint service to Central America; and British Airways targets a new U.S. gateway.

United Airlines is throwing in the towel on its daily San Jose-Newark service as of October 26, citing poor traffic numbers.

That leaves three carriers in the non-stop SJC-New York market – Alaska Airlines with a daytime eastbound flight to Newark and a new daily daytime flight to New York JFK; and Delta and JetBlue with eastbound red-eye service from SJC to New York JFK.

United continues to fly from SJC to its hubs at Houston Bush Intercontinental, Denver and Chicago O’Hare.

Elsewhere, United will add some new spokes from its Denver hub. On October 4, it will begin twice-daily service to Monterey, California with CRJ200s.

On December 19 United will launch seasonal daily service from DEN to Mammoth Lakes, California with a CRJ700, continuing through the end of March.

And on August 29, United will add Prescott, Arizona to its route map with daily CRJ200 flights from Denver and six CRJ200 flights a week from Los Angeles. All four of these routes will be operated by SkyWest.

To Hawaii, meanwhile, United is expected to deploy new Boeing 737 MAX9s on some west coast routes in the months ahead.

It will use the new planes to operate six to seven flights a week from LAX to Kahului, Maui starting August 21; daily flights from LAX to Kona as of February 14.

Daily service from San Francisco to Kona beginning March 8; and daily flights from SFO to Maui as of March 9. While efficient, the new planes have become quickly known for ultra-tight seating and teeny-tiny lavatories. Tough for a five hour flight.

Speaking of Hawaii when Chris was in Kauai recently, the word on the street was that production crews were on the island shooting commercials for Southwest Airlines' launch of new flights from the mainland.

Unconfirmed reports are that flights could begin as soon as November. The carrier is currently flying domestic simulations in the hopes of getting ETOPS certification for its 737s soon.

Delta is the largest airline at Raleigh-Durham, and it’s planning to grow there next spring with the addition of a key business route.

On April 1, the carrier will start flying three times a day from RDU to Chicago O'Hare , using 70-passenger E175s with first class, Comfort+ and main cabin seating.

Delta will be trying to pick up a piece of the RDU-ORD market currently dominated by United and American, and maybe a bit of the RDU-Chicago Midway market served by multiple daily Southwest flights.

Delta and Aeromexico will add another route top their joint venture operation on September 17 with the launch of new non-stop service between Detroit and Queretaro, a growing business center northwest of Mexico City.

The route will be served three days a week with a two-class Aeromexico E190. And on October 28, Delta will increase capacity between Miami and Havana by adding a second flight five days a week.

Citing increased demand from customers for its premium front-cabin Mint service with lie-flat seats, JetBlue said it will add weekly Mint-equipped flights to a pair of Latin America and Caribbean markets this fall.

On November 3, it will start Saturday service from Boston to St. Lucia, followed on December 15 by Mint-equipped flights from New York JFK to Liberia, Costa Rica.

Next February, it will resume Saturday Mint service from JFK to St. Maarten.

British Airways will add another U.S. gateway to its network on April 2 when it kicks off new service from London Heathrow to Pittsburgh.

The carrier will use a 787-8 Dreamliner on the route, which will operate four days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday).


Tourism Observer

JAPAN: Eastern Air Lines Cancels Order For 40 Mitsubishi Regional Jets From Mitsubishi Aircraft

Mitsubishi Aircraft has agreed with Eastern Air Lines to cancel the U.S. carrier's order for 40 Mitsubishi Regional Jets.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has received orders for around 450 MRJs.

According to the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unit, the cancellation will not affect delivery of other jets.

Mitsubishi Aircraft, which has pushed back its first deliveries five times already, now expects to ship its first jets in 2020.

Eastern Air last year was purchased by rival Swift Air. Eastern then lost its airline license.

The carrier ordered the passenger jets four years ago, and delivery was originally scheduled to start in 2019, but Mitsubishi Aircraft has twice pushed back the date, which had been up in the air before the cancellation.

The Japanese company is now anxious about other orders, like one from SkyWest of the U.S. for 200 aircraft.

The MRJ made its maiden test flight in 2015 and has been taking to the air for further tests in the U.S. since then.

Last January, however, Mitsubishi Aircraft was forced to announce a fifth delay, saying the MRJ failed to be certified as airworthy by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Since then, other makers of regional jets have been heaping pressure on Mitsubishi Aircraft. Brazil's Embraer, regarded as the biggest player in the space, is in tie-up negotiations with Boeing.

Canada's Bombardier has already joined hands with Airbus. And a Chinese company, Comac, has introduced its own regional jet.

In Japan, the fate of the MRJ progra, the first effort to produce a domestic passenger aircraft in about a half century is a matter of national pride.

Amid all the media attention, there are hopes that the jet can debut in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has decided to act. It has brought the problem ridden Mitsubishi Aircraft under the direct supervision of its president, Shunichi Miyanaga.

The parent company also plans to hire aircraft engineers away from U.S. makers so that they can help the MRJ win certification by the end of next year.


Tourism Observer

USA: 3 Injured On Skywest Flight To Chicago After Severe Turbulence Enroute.

A Skywest Airlines Canadair CRJ-700 on behalf of American Airlines was performing flight from Atlanta to Chicago O’Hare, when the crew decided to divert to Saint Louis reporting a flight attendant had sustained a head injury as result of turbulence.

The aircraft landed safely in Saint Louis about 25 minutes later.

The FAA reported one flight attendant received injuries as result of turbulence enroute, the severity of the injuries is still being assessed.

The airline reported a flight attendant and two passengers were taken to a hospital for evaluation after the aircraft had encountered severe turbulence enroute.

The occurrence aircraft departed Saint Louis after about 2.5 hours on the ground and reached Chicago as flight OO-9851 with a delay of 3:15 hours.




Tourism Observer

Looming Pilot Shortage Accross America

Piloting a jetliner was once a glamorous profession. Then came the 9/11 terror attacks, airline bankruptcies and pension cuts. And entry-level pilots worked for peanuts.

But now the pendulum is swinging back. Regional airlines across America — including the Northwest’s Horizon Air — are grappling with a looming pilot shortage.

Horizon currently has about 650 pilots on staff.

“We’re looking for roughly 100 to 120 pilots per year that we need to keep adding in for growth as well as to cover attrition,” said LaMar Haugaard, director of pilot development and recruiting at Horizon Air in Portland.

Horizon Air is part of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines as well. They are just one player in a global industry, which the Boeing Company estimated in 2014 will need 558,000 commercial airline pilots over the next 20 years.

Aviation economist Dan Akins of the consulting firm Flightpath Economics described the regional airline sector as “the tip of the spear” for feeling the pilot shortage.

“There aren’t enough pilots being supplied to the industry to sustain it,” Akins said in an interview. He contended that smaller cities risk losing air service unless the current trajectory changes.

“I think we are in the very early stages of a really hard landing for the industry,” Akins said.

The big shortage

So how did airline pilots get in short supply?

“It really is a perfect coming together of growth within the industry,” Haugaard said.

That’s combined with the beginnings of an anticipated wave of retirements from the major airlines, who then backfill by plucking pilots from regional carriers. The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial airline pilots to retire at age 65.

Then add to that, a big increase in the training requirements needed to get an air transport pilot license. That came from the FAA in 2013 in the wake of a commuter airline crash in upstate New York.

A lot of commercial airline pilots used to come over from the Air Force too, but Haugaard said the military does not train as many pilots as it used to.

“Marry that up with fewer and fewer people getting into the industry — mainly due to becoming cost-prohibitive on the training side — you have shortage that will come from that,” Haugaard said. “And we are certainly seeing that now.”

Perks for the aspiring pilot

So now Horizon and its peers are inking deals with university aviation programs to ramp up pilot development. The arrangements include tuition reimbursement or a big signing bonus for aspiring pilots. In exchange, those students commit to fly with a certain carrier for at least two years once they’re qualified.

The stepped-up recruiting by various airlines led Teamsters Local 1224 Vice President Mark Niles to observe, “It’s almost a game of one-upmanship right now.”

The veteran Horizon pilot said he had heard of rivals offering bonuses in excess of $20,000 to get new pilots in the door. Job offers can include a combination of signing bonus, a later retention bonus and advancement preferences to command bigger jets.

Horizon management and its pilots union are currently in talks about how to sweeten the airline’s offerings to stay competitive.

A recently signed pilot development deal between Horizon Air and Central Washington University included one-time $7,500 “stipends” for up to 17 aviation students per year. In addition, Horizon donated a $10,000 desktop flight simulator.

Central Washington University Aviation Chair Sundaram Nataraja foresees major enrollment growth in his department to fill the pipeline.

“We want to grow this to a bigger level,” Nataraja said. “In five years down the road, we want to have a total of 1,000 students in the aviation department. Currently we have 200.”

Nataraja said parents still get wide-eyed when he explains the cost of a professional pilot education. It runs $80,000-$100,000 over four years, chiefly due to the fees for one-on-one flight training. A typical student may graduate with considerable debt. But thanks to the newfound, stiff competition for aviation graduates, entry level pay at regional airlines has risen significantly over the past year.

Student instructors with a first officer job awaiting them estimated their starting pay would be in the $30,000-$35,000 range. A few years ago, a freshly minted co-pilot at a regional airline might have earned less than $25,000 per year to start. As cockpit crew members gain experience and move up the career ladder, their pay soars into the six figures.

‘A dream come true’ in Ellensburg

Tyler Holmen, 18, of Redmond, Washington, knows what he wants to do in life.

“Flying has just always fascinated me,” Holmen said. “I kind of settled on it at an early age. It’s kind of a dream come true here.”

Holmen and fellow aviation students at Central Washington could hardly have picked a better time to become professional pilots.

Flight instructor Gage Geist, 22, graduated from CWU in late spring. He’s now giving flight lessons to undergrads, which helps Geist rack up the flight hours needed to qualify for an airline job. A first officer slot awaits him at his chosen Horizon Air as soon as he logs 1,000 flight hours.

“By the time I graduated, I had three conditional job offers,” Geist said.

He said that’s a big change from even just a few years ago.

“When I first started off, it was once in a blue moon we would have a recruiter come by — maybe once every other month,” Geist said. “Now it’s almost every other week.”

It takes a dispatcher to manage the waves of instructors and students rotating through five flight simulators and a fleet of single engine Cessnas used as flight trainers at Ellensburg’s Bowers Field Airport.

New training programs

Inside the training center, a bulletin board is covered with recruiting posters and ads from regional airlines such as Horizon Air, SkyWest and Mesa Airlines. You may know these better flying under their alternate identities as Alaska Airlines, Delta Connection or United Express.

The competing airlines gush about being the place where “your career takes off” and how quickly you can “upgrade” to a parent company’s mainline jets.

Until this year, CWU was the only public university in the Pacific Northwest offering a four-year bachelor’s degree as a professional pilot. A bunch of community colleges in Oregon and Washington have two-year pilot training programs with transfer options to meet the airlines’ preference for a bachelor’s degree.

Earlier this year, Green River College in Auburn, Washington, introduced a four-year bachelor’s degree track. The program’s enrollment filled right away according to Aviation Department Chair George Comollo.

Comollo said his department was in talks to set up a direct recruitment pathway with Horizon that would include the one-time $7,500 stipend and a guaranteed cockpit job for selected students. He said SkyWest Airlines might be the next partner to seek clearance to land on campus.

AUSTRALIA: Virgin Australia Signs Charter Partnership With Alliance Aviation

Virgin Australia has agreed on a long-term strategic partnership with Brisbane-based fly-in fly-out operator Alliance Aviation Services that will see both airlines work together to build up their charter businesses amid tough times in the mining and oil and gas industries.

Under the proposed deal, which will need approval from the competition regulator, existing charter contracts will remain with the current operator but all future contracts will be operated as part of the partnership.

The pair will also enter agreements to procure services for each other on a preferential basis, including aircraft, spare parts, maintenance and ground-handling services.

Virgin chief executive John Borghetti said the deal would allow both airlines to boost their competitive position in the charter market, where they compete against players like QantasLink, Cobham Aviation Services and Airnorth.

Alliance managing director Scott McMillan said there was "a great deal of logic" in partnering with Virgin.

Virgin had signed a 10-year strategic alliance with Perth-based charter operator Skywest in 2011, but a year later Virgin launched a $100 million takeover of Skywest, which was completed in 2013. Virgin used Skywest as the basis for the formation of Virgin Australia Regional Airlines.

Virgin and Alliance both use Fokker aircraft in their charter operations. Alliance last year agreed to buy 21 Fokker jets from Germany's Lufthansa Group for $20.7 million in cash and shares in a move that will give it spare parts to help its fleet run longer, expand operations into Europe and, potentially, sell the popular aircraft to operators like Qantas and Virgin.

In its half-year results release on Monday, Alliance said the fly-in fly-out industry continued to be challenged by its operating schedule, contract margin and payment terms as a result of the downturn in the resources market. The company decided not to declare an interim dividend after reporting a 35 per cent fall in net profit to $4.1 million.

Alliance said flying hours had been stable, but revenue fell by 10 per cent because like other charter operators, it passed on the fuel price savings to its customers. The company said the second-half performance was forecast to be better than the first half given the current schedule.

The downturn in the resources industry has placed pressure on all charter operators. Mr Borghetti said last week that Virgin's regional operations "had performed well against the backdrop of a slowing resources sector".

Data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed the number of passengers on fixed-wing charter operations fell by 6.8 per cent in November 2015 from the same month a year earlier.