Lot Polish Airlines has signed a deal for 12 additional Embraer 175 jets plus two options and ten purchase rights. The layout of the aircraft will include 82 elite seats, and the plan is to use them to ‘right-size’ aircraft based on seasonal or specific time-of-day influences on routes.
Jetblue inaugurated its St. Maarten-JFK service on Thursday.
Midwest Airlines is transitioning the operation of all Midwest Connect flights, its regional arm, from Skyway Airlines to Skywest Airlines. The same markets will be served, but Skywest will operate them using 50-seat aircraft rather than the 32-seat aircraft currently used. The plan is to offer roughly the same number of seats in each market, but with slightly less frequency. The transition will take place in March and April, at which point 380 Skyway pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and dispatchers will be terminated. Skyway will continue in an airport services role for Midwest and Midwest Connect. The move is partially motivated by the fact that the cost of operating Fairchild regional jets have become more costly as the aircraft is no longer being produced
On April 27th, Alaska Airlines will introduce 15 daily weekday roundtrips between Seattle and Los Angeles, departing on the hour southbound and half-hour northbound. Weekday departures from Seattle to Oakland, Orange County, San Diego, San Fransciso, and San Jose will also go ‘shuttle’ style. Alaska’s partner, Horizon, offers shuttle style service on its Portland-Seattle route. The shuttle style, whose hallmark is regular and memorable flight times, ie departures on the hour or half hour, spaced at regular intervals throughout the day, is only largely used on the Boston-New York-Washington shuttle markets in the industry. The Cranky Flier has termed the move Alaska “welcoming” Virgin America to Seattle, a defensive move in two of their biggest markets. But we tend to disagree with him, only slightly, in that we feel that the service frequency could spur a positive revenue benefit to Alaska, especially if they couple it with other ground benefits, ala the Delta Shuttle, namely a dedicated area of gates/lounge, etc.
American Airlines will introduce nonstop service from Dallas/Ft. Worth to San Salvador, El Savador on April 7th. Sales begin today. American already services San Salvador from Miami and Los Angeles.
Spirit Airlines is introducing daily nonstop service between San Antonio and Ft. Lauderdale. Once daily service will begin April 14th, with a second flight added May 1st. Promotional fares will begin at $18.36 each way, in honor of the year of Texan Independence.
USAToday reports that Stockholm Airport has approved a plan to convert a 747 parked near the entrance into an affordable hostel. Early plans call for ripping out the seats and installing 80 beds, and converting the cockpit into a suite.
Today in the Sky reports that more flights are heading to Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. Small leisure carrier Myrtle Beach Direct Air will add service to Myrtle Beach, SC. The service, operated by Xtra Airways will operate three days a week starting March 15th. One stop service to St. Petersburg, FL will be available twice-weekly. Myrtle Beach Direct also offers service to Newark, N.J.; Niagara Falls, N.Y.; Pittsburgh; Columbus Rickenbacker, Ohio; and Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss.
In other Plattsburgh news, EAS service will return to Plattsburgh soon. When Big Sky Airlines terminated its operations on the 7th, it lost its EAS provider. Cape Air has been selected to replace them, perhaps on the heels of its success in Rutland, VT., and will offer the service in a few weeks to Boston. Jetblue may offer the same codeshare it does in Rutland, further boosting usage. Jetblue serves Burlington, VT. just across Lake Champlain from Plattsburgh.
On June 1st, Alitalia will add nonstop service from Rome to Los Angeles. Through October 24th, it will operate five times weekly, excepting Tuesdays and Fridays.
Sun County Airlines, a popular Minneapolis based carrier, launched twice daily service from New York’s JFK airport to West Palm Beach, FL on the 14th in addition to its Minneapolis to West Palm Beach service, which is going daily. Sun Country only operates a handful of flights that do not operate in or out of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Although their press release does not make it clear, their route map implies their New York service will be seasonal.
