Alaska Finalizes Hawaiian Merger
Better late than never — the DOT approved the merger of Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines this week, paving the way to complete the joining of the two carriers while they will continue to maintain their separate brands in the public eye.
Alaska had to agree to some minor concessions to the DOT — read more about them in Thursday’s crankyflier.com post — but did not have to give up much of consequence to make the deal happen, and it will now get down to work on combining the two carriers while trying to keep the core customers for both brands happy.
The combined carrier now operates about 1,500 daily flights to 141 destinations — some of which are not in Alaska or Hawaiʻi. Honolulu will become the second largest hub in the combined carrier’s network, behind Seattle. Loyalty members will be able to transfer miles at a 1:1 rate between the two programs at no cost in the near future, while those who live on the islands will see a new program introduced called Huakaʻi by Hawaiian to give special perks just like Club 49 in Alaska.
With both brands expected to survive for the indefinite future, customers won’t see too many changes when flying. Both carriers will maintain their networks, and while we can’t expect to see POG juice on Alaska anytime soon, one can always hope.
JetBlue to Open Lounges in New York and Boston
JetBlue Airways has been rumored to be on the verge of opening a lounge at New York/JFK for about as long as JetBlue has been an airline — but it’s finally coming true. The airline announced Thursday it plans to open not just one lounge, but two. An 8,000 square foot lounge will open at JetBlue’s home at JFK’s T5 late next year, with an even larger 11,000 square foot lounge to follow at Boston’s Terminal C.
The size of 8,000 to 11,000 square feet isn’t huge — for comparison, Delta’s new Delta One lounge at JFK is nearly 40,000 square feet. The airline didn’t release images or renderings, leaving the whole concept to the imagination, with dreams of flowing fountains of Dunkin’ coffee greeting passengers and a minty fresh color scheme throughout accented by blue chips scattered tastefully.
Access will be limited to those traveling in Mint to or from Europe. Domestic flights with Mint and those within North America and the Caribbean will not be granted access. Annual memberships will be available and surely cost-effective, while JetBlue’s top tier loyalty members, the dramatically named Mosaic 4, will have access. Lastly those who sign up for JetBlue’s mystery new credit card will also be allowed into the hallowed halls. Rumor has it the card will be carefully crafted from the skin of scrapped Embraer 190s fused together by tears from former CEO Robin Hayes.
JetBlue is being very mindful of keeping its costs low despite opening lounges. The airline plans to require all Blue Basic Economy passengers originating or ending their travels in New York or Boston to work a one-hour shift in the lounge.
A Breeze Blows into Northern Virginia
Washington/Dulles is getting a new airline this fall, as Breeze Airways blows into the nation’s capital with four routes including its first EAS contract with service to Ogdensburg, New York (OGS). Ogdensburg is a strange place for federal funding considering it exists as an airport mostly for Ottawans driving an hour south to get cheaper flights in the US. But both families that live in Ogdensburg will surely be appreciative.
In addition to government-subsidized service to OGS, Breeze will connect Dulles with Provo, South Bend, and Vero Beach. IAD – OGS service begins next Friday and will operate daily on an A220. 3x weekly service to Provo begins October 1, South Bend will operate 2x weekly and commence on November 8, while Vero Beach will begin November 21 and also be 2x weekly.
None of these four cities currently have regular service to the DC area, but Breeze is hoping to help the local residents in all four places more interested in the inner-workings of the federal government with these flights. As part of these efforts, customers can expect riveting in-flight entertainment on all flights to Washington.
Delta Adds Across the Pond
Delta Air Lines announced seven new routes, one new destination, and five increased frequencies as part of its summer 2025 schedule to Europe. The airline has chosen to put most of its capacity into tried-and-true tourist markets instead of bolstering the new mega-hub coming to Copenhagen, which is bound to surpass Paris as the most important point in the Delta/Air France-KLM European network.
Catania, Italy (CTA) is a new destination for Delta, and it’ll be served daily from New York/JFK. Other new routes for the carrier include Atlanta to both Naples (4x weekly) and Brussels (3x weekly), Boston to Milan/MXP (4x weekly) and Barcelona (3x weekly), and 4x weekly service on both Minneapolis/St Paul to Rome/FCO and Detroit to Dublin.
Frequencies are going up on four routes from Atlanta — Athens (7x to 11x weekly), Barcelona (7x to 10x weekly), Rome/FCO (14x to 17x weekly), and Zurich (4x weekly to daily), while Detroit to Munich also will operate daily next summer.
Charlotte Opens Ten New Gates
Charlotte Douglas International Airport opened ten new gates this week as part of a 200,000 square foot expansion after two-and-a-half years of construction.
The new gates are in the airport’s Concourse A, and will see Delta claim seven gates, Frontier two, and the final addition will be common use for anyone — squatters rights apply, which means it’ll probably just go to American like everything else there. The new gates are part of a major push to update the airport and include two new pedestrian bridges that opened earlier this summer, and a $600 million terminal lobby expansion that is currently underway.
The expansion cost about $240 million, and was funded by bonds, passenger facility charges, and a state grant.
- Air Belgium has entered bankruptcy and its days appear to be numbered.
- Air Canada avoided a pilots strike at the last minute.
- Air France will reveal its new La Premiere later this year. For those who don’t speak French, La Premiere translates to “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”
- airBaltic is in pre-IPO talks. Although if we accept that as a concept, couldn’t nearly every conversation we all have at any point in our lives be considered pre-IPO?
- American could be making a credit card move finally, maybe, eventually.
- BA is adding 4x weekly service from London/Heathrow to Tbilisi on March 30.
- Brussels Airlines is adding three more A330s in the coming years to strengthen its network in Africa.
- Canada Jetlines filed for bankruptcy. Sorry we forgot to add a spoiler alert there.
- Cape Air is now an option for mileage earning and redemptions for JetBlue TrueBlue members.
- China Southern is returning to Adelaide with 3x weekly flights beginning December 12.
- Delta is now the official airline partner of Birmingham City Football Club in England’s League One. When finding out the team did not play its home games in Alabama, the airline said “we knew that, we knew it all along.”
- JetBlue named for Sabre president and CEO Sean Menke to its board of directors. The airline meant to add him to the board last month, but due to simultaneous changes had to ignore and retrieve and try again.
- Jetstar is adding more ways to get to Australia’s Gold Coast.
- KLM‘s first A321neo began flying on Monday.
- Lufthansa is considering ending its Frankfurt – Beijing route.
- Qatar is adding four additional weekly flights to Amsterdam this winter
- SAS is interested in tossed salad and scrambled eggs.
- Starlux is moving towards oneworld.
- Thai is considering a joint MRO business with Thai Aviation Industries.
- Turkish is headed to Sydney.
- United will open both a United Club Fly grab-n-go concept and a new, Texas-sized full lounge in its Houston/IAH hub next year.
- Vietnam Airlines will begin flying to Milan/MXP on July 1, its first foray into Italy.
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