To do this work, I pulled annual passenger share for United and the next largest airlines using the Department of Transportation’s Origin & Destination Survey data (DB1B/C) via Cirium. This looked only for passengers that weren’t connecting through the hub. The problem with this, however, is that the data that’s public is only domestic. So, I’ll present that here and then talk how international would likely change the results.

And now, back to American’s hubs. I already had this chart in the United post, but it becomes more important now that the FAA has ruled on how it will allow O’Hare to run this summer.

Chicagoland Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

Post-pandemic, United really took advantage of American’s market neglect, and it grew its share significantly. American realized this in 2024, and it started pouring capacity back in for future schedules. In 2025, you can see the change in local share which is a direct result of American just having a lot more seats in the market.

But now, O’Hare is overscheduled as American continues to try to grow more and United matches the airline. The FAA has now stepped in, set a cap, and said that this summer’s capacity will be proportional to what flew last summer (2025). Overall, airlines will have to drop 150 to 200 daily operations in total compared to what’s filed, but the real fight was over how those cuts would be divvied up.

Using 2025 is good news for American in that if 2023 or 2024 had been chosen, it would have been forced to cancel so many more flights. But it’s better for United than if 2019 had been chosen. So, expect 2025’s share in this chart to carry forward, barring a shift in local vs flow strategy.

Next up is American’s favorite, Charlotte. I say it’s American’s favorite, because there is no real competition there.

Charlotte Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

Sure enough, American did see a little erosion post-pandemic as low-cost operators tried to make a small dent, but 2025 was a bounce-back kind of year for American here as well.

Moving on to American’s biggest and most important hub, say hello to the Dallas Metroplex.

Dallas Metroplex Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

This actually looks a lot like the Charlotte one, to the point where I had to double-check the data. But sure enough, once again, after seeing the ULCCs make some inroads in post-pandemic years, American rebounded in 2025. And Southwest fell off. I imagine that will change as Southwest has finished implementing its big product changes, and that may draw people back in the fold. But nobody is ever challenging American for supremacy in this market.

Now it’s time for another familiar chart, the Los Angeles Basin. We saw this in the United post, and here it is again.

Los Angeles Basin Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

From an American perspective, LA is all about the shrinking. The Pacific hub went away (not reflected here since this is domestic) and then the rest of the network shrunk accordingly. But unlike in some of the other markets, American has not regained any ground in the LA area. It remains below Delta, and United keeps creeping ever closer. One thing of note is that American’s operation at LAX has seen much more construction than any other airline, so it could reconsider in a couple years when all its gates are open again.

And while we’re on duplication, let’s look at New York again.

New York City Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

American has seen something of a rebound, but these numbers are wonky. After all, it was in the prior few years that American entered in the Northeast Alliance with JetBlue. With that, JetBlue started operating a lot of LaGuardia flights that American had run previously. One thing to keep in mind is that in 2025, American shifted its strategy in NYC to start flying more to big markets, like Orlando, Tampa, etc. So that will also be a factor in the 2025 rebound, but … if we just compare to 2019, the airline is flat.

A little further south, we have Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

American has been pretty steady here in general, but it does look like some 2023 ULCC growth had a noticeable impact. That’s gone, however, and American is back to where it was in Philly as of 2025, if not a little higher.

Now let’s move on to Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun.

Phoenix Valley of the Sun Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

It’s been down for both American and Southwest, though American did pop back up in 2025 a little. There’s been growth from pretty much every airline in the area over the last few years, so it’s not a surprise to see this come back down a bit. With international flying, the gap vs Southwest is certainly smaller than it shows here. But Southwest is still the clear leader in the market.

How about South Florida? On this one I did combine Miami with Fort Lauderdale and, unimportantly, West Palm Beach. Because of course in Miami alone, it’s all American, all the time.

South Florida Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

American actually has seen its share decline in South Florida since before the pandemic as other airlines have made moves. But JetBlue interestingly hasn’t been one of those airlines. It did put a lot of growth in the market later in 2025 and into this year, so we can probably expect to see that change. Spirit has dropped, of course, but it’s really Delta that has come on pretty strong in the last couple of years.

And finally, we look at DC… again.

Washington/Baltimore Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

As we talked about in the United post, American is now behind United and Southwest (assuming we include BWI). Operational restrictions at National certainly hurt, but American could still increase gauge and focus more on local traffic than connecting if it wanted to do so.

Overall, American did turn around some of that share decline in post-pandemic years in quite a number of its hubs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it still has several hubs where it is not the leader or likely very close to it. There’s certainly a lot for American’s new Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper to think through.

As we all know, Spirit has spent the last several months trying to work through a proper Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization after botching its first attempt earlier last year to get any meaningful fixes. This time, it is taking things seriously. We know it has shrunk by more than half, it has shed expensive fleet, and it is focusing on rebuilding around its core in Florida, Detroit, and New York.

We can quibble all we want about things in the plan itself. For example, I don’t understand why the airline still has so many crew bases when it can’t reliably staff the flights it has. But none of that really matters. What matters is that there is a plan on the table, and the creditors have to decide if they like it or not.

So what is this plan? Well, the financials were finally released on April 6 in an updated disclosure statement. Spirit says it will have an operating margin of -7.4 percent this year, but it will be a positive 8.6 percent next year climbing to double digits after.

Let’s start on the revenue side of the plan. Spirit says it will achieve unit revenue of 11.66 cents for 2026, and that will climb to 14.13 cents by 2030 at the end of the plan. That seems wildly optimistic.

February operating numbers were just released, and the prospects worsened compared to January. Excluding special items, I’m seeing a negative margin of about 26 percent, 10 points worse than January. Doing the math, I get a Feb unit revenue that sagged to 9.66 cents. That means Jan and Feb combined are at 9.92 cents. That is going to be a hefty climb to get to 11.66 for the full year, and one that I would say seems very unlikely considering the current state of things.

And this doesn’t even take into account the cost side of the equation. I can’t speak to any of the cost numbers except for one very big one: fuel. Spirit budgeted $2.67 a gallon for fuel in 2026, plunging to $2.14 in 2027. We are currently well over $4 a gallon, and the prospects for a meaningful decline aren’t great. (Though, admittedly, that news changed by the minute.)

I did a little math, and for Spirit to break-even in 2027, it needs to have its very optimistic revenue numbers come true, and it needs fuel to be below $3.15 a gallon. That, of course, requires Spirit getting to 2027 in the first place.

Spring break is now over, so Spirit’s peak revenue-generating capability is done. With all the war and TSA mess in March, I imagine it did not do all that well then anyway. But now for the next couple months, we’re in shoulder/off-peak times where revenues are going to be weaker. Spirit needs to get to summer before it can really start generating revenue again… though probably not profit.

So again, I ask… why are creditors continuing to let this airline keep flying? Do they like waving goodbye to their money? Can they really not think of a better place to put it? (I’ve got plenty of ideas for them.)

As part of its disclosure statement, Spirit has to put out a liquidation analysis. In other words, if it decided to just liquidate, how much money would there be to divvy up? There’s a high and a low scenario, and Spirit says that it should be worth — net of all expenses — between $1.43 and $1.71 billion if converted to a Chapter 7 and sold off. Presumably that number goes down every day the airline continues to lose money. That number doesn’t sound too bad in a world where profitability truly seems quite far off.

All of this comes together to likely explain why the stories have been coming fast and furious about the airline pondering its end. That being said, to be very clear, the management team is not going down without a fight.

One thing I heard last week was that Spirit was trying to pressure the federal government to give it a loan. (I later saw this confirmed by Jamie Baker from JP Morgan Chase in an analyst note.) You can’t blame the management team for trying every possible lever, but this would certainly show the depths of despair at the airline if it’s trying this. After, this would be a terrible idea for the government, and it would undoubtedly require spending all remaining political capital.

If the pitch is that fuel is expensive because of the government’s actions so the airline deserves a bailout, then who DOESN’T deserve a bailout? That doesn’t mean that the powerful Florida political scene couldn’t try to get this pushed through in this current administration, but it seems unlikely.

In the end, it seems like Spirit is trying absolutely everything it can, which is all you can ask from a management team dealt a losing hand. (Remember, it was the previous team under CEO Ted Christie that led the airline through the first failed bankruptcy.) But at this point, I think all we can wonder is… how is this airline still flying?

Are flights getting more expensive because of the Iran war? – USA Today

It was a twofer with USA Today this week. First, are flights getting more expensive because of the war? Well, yes, but mostly because of that pesky jet fuel price that has risen because of the war.

All major airlines raised checked bag fees again. Get used to it – USA Today

Fares can only go up so much, but airlines want more to cover costs. Bag fees? That hasn’t been touched in a couple of years, so why not take a swing at those too.

Panel Discussion on Airlines – Schwab Network

I was asked to join a short six minute panel discussion about what’s happening in the industry.

Spirit on the Brink?

Time is a flat circle. Sometimes Spirit is filing for bankruptcy. Sometimes it’s getting a plan approved to exit bankruptcy. And sometimes it’s reported by reliable sources that the airline is on the bring of liquidation. Is it true? Check back next Friday and we’ll see.

Spirit told CNBC in a statement that it doesn’t “comment on market rumors and speculation,” which, well, what fun is that? There’s a whole cottage industry built on market rumors and speculation, and they’re really missing out.

Pilots and FAs made concessions back to the carrier to help it survive. Spirit, popular amongst budget travelers and those heading to Florida (that’s a Venn Diagram that’s almost 100% overlap) is on the back end of Spring Break, and is looking down the barrel at a challenging spring and summer with gas prices costing more per gallon that Spirit charges for many of its base fares.

While it seems like it’s a matter of when — and not if — Spirit shuts down, anything is possible. Well almost anything, it’s not like American and United would ever merge, right?

Scott Kirby’s Latest Plan for World Domination

What if Coke and Pepsi merged? Or GEICO and Progressive? What about Marriott and Hilton? Seems unlikely, no? Not in the mind of United CEO Scott Kirby who floated the idea this week that his carrier could absorb its peskiest rivAAl, to create a super airline that combines the unreliability of American and the proud Newark base of United to spawn the most unmanageable blob of an airline since…well, since Texas Air acquired Continental in the ’80s.

Is Kirby serious? Maybe. Probably not. But maybe. What’s he really at here? Is it that he really wants JetBlue and is laying the ground for that by pushing this so a JetBlue acquisition doesn’t seem so crazy? Brett and friends said on The Air Show that is one active theory. Another is that Scott Kirby truly, down to his core, actually believes that there’s only room for two dominant U.S. carriers, and this is the quickest way to settle that.

DOT Makes Decision on Chicago/ORD Deescalation

The battle between American and United at Chicago/ORD finally had some sense knocked into it by — gasp — the federal government. The DOT ruled that about 300 flights per day needed to be cut from the airport’s peak summer schedule to give it even a prayer of maintaining any operational reliability.

“What’s operational reliability?” asked American upon hearing the ruling from the government, while United smugly accepted the ruling while secretly wishing the government would force it to reduce flying to Newark again too.

Nearly 3,100 flights were planned on peak days this summer, a 15% jump from a year ago. The maximum the government will permit this summer is 2,708, which is still more than last year’s 2,680.

When hearing that 300 flights needed to be reduced, AA and UA network planning teams got together and emerged early this morning with a new plan. They say that if Delta and Frontier cut about 25 flights per day, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Porter, WestJet, Viva, and Volaris go down to one flight a day, all other international carriers just pull out of the airport, and then assuming Spirit goes under, that should get them to the 300 flights cut without either AA or UA having to eliminate anything.

Lufthansa Looks for Savings, Shuts Down CityLine

Lufthansa will be adjusting its operation in reaction to rising oil prices and their mess of a labor situation as summer approaches. It’s a bold strategy, because everyone knows you can’t cancel flights if they’ve already been taken off the schedule. It’s calling it “capacity discipline,” which is corporate for “we checked the math and yikes.”

It also will reduce capacity in a very efficient and very German three-step plan:

• Removal of Lufthansa CityLine forever
• Retirement of its last four A340-600s and the grounding of two B747-400s by the end of summer
• Additional capacity reduction for the 26/27 winter

CityLine is, er, was a regional subsidiary of Lufthansa and it was already set to be wound down next year and replaced by the wildly differently named Lufthansa City. But this abrupt change will end all CityLine service as of tomorrow, April 18. All CityLine employees will be laid off and are expected to be offered jobs at other LH subsidiaries, at a dramatically reduced salary, we’re sure.

But wait, there’s more! LH also will move up the transfer of nine A350-900s to low-cost operator Discover, while also vowing to find other savings through the reduction of admin costs and increasing revenue streams, including charging a €3 fare to board a bus when arriving at a remote stand in Frankfurt. Passengers electing not to pay the fee will have to find their own way to the terminal from the remote stand.

Spirit Told to Pay Up to TSA

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that Spirit could no longer get away with being a cheapskate and holding on to passenger security fees that were owed to the TSA.

Talk about kicking a guy when he’s down, Spirit is doing everything it can to stay afloat, looking for every penny it can find and the government sniffed out this scheme and put an end to it. Spirit was taking flights that customers booked, canceled for a credit, and then let the credit expire without using it and keeping the TSA fee on those bookings.

The government ruled that the airline can do one of two things with passenger security fees — pay it to the TSA or refund it to the customer. Baking the fee into a credit that doesn’t get redeemed doesn’t fall within those two options, and Spirit is being required to send $2.84 million in fees to the TSA.

Spirit would not make anyone available for comment, but an off-the-record source told us at the TSA is “gonna love being a creditor when we go under…good luck collecting.”

• Air Canada unveiled its fancy new cabins. But you won’t be flying them to New York/JFK this summer.
• American will test electronic boarding gates at DFW this summer.
• Condor is going to need some ownership help.
• Delta is suspending five routes this summer.
• Edelweiss won’t be flying to either Denver or Seattle this summer as the carrier is a known hater of Super Bowl XLVIII.
• JetBlue could be in trouble if you ask its founder and current boss at Breeze David Neeleman.
• Jet2 wants you to know that nothing beats a trip on its new all-business class B737-800.
• Korean unveiled its fancy new lounge product at Seoul/ICN.
• LEVEL will fly a lesser level of nonstops this summer from Barcelona.
• Magnicharters shut down its entire operation for at least two weeks. Because these moves usually only last a short period and everything is fine after. Don’t worry that its website now appears offline completely.
• Norse Atlantic is pulling out of Los Angeles. It says its because of high oil prices, but we suspect its because no one in Hollywood would take them up on their movie script “The Many Bjørns.”
• Oman Air will return service to Dubai tomorrow.
• Qantas is reducing its flying both to the U.S. and domestically to combat spiking oil prices.
• SAS will begin 5x weekly Mumbai service in June.
• SCAT Airlines, in addition to its unfortunate name, is now the sole shareholder of Southern Sky Airlines.
• SkyTeam named Cate Leigh as VP for Corporate Affairs. She will spin the wheel on her first day with each SkyTeam carrier and will move to whatever country’s airline it stops on.
• Spirit is looking to reject seven more airplanes.

Spent nearly an hour trying to figure out how to fasten my seatbelt.

Then it finally clicked.

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At United’s media day last month, the airline proudly put forth a slide noting that back in the day, it only had the largest local passenger share in one of its hubs: Houston. Today, it says it is number one in all of them except for Los Angeles. That is a big shift, but is it true? I pulled the numbers to find out, and regardless of the answer, it is clear that United is significantly growing its share in every one of its hubs with one notable exception.

To do this work, I pulled annual passenger share for United and the next largest airlines using the Department of Transportation’s Origin & Destination Survey data (DB1B/C) via Cirium. This looked only for passengers that weren’t connecting through the hub. The problem with this, however, is that the data that’s public is only domestic. So, I’ll present that here and then talk how international would likely change the results.

Let’s just do this in alphabetical order, shall we? That means we start in Chicago. The airline’s growth there will be no surprise to anyone since United has been crowing loudly to everyone who will listen about just how much local share the airline has gained. And the numbers certainly show that.

Chicagoland Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

It wasn’t that long before the pandemic that American was number one in Chicago, but now it’s no contest. American in fact had slipped below Southwest and its Midway operation. Of course, 2025 was the year American realized it was going to lose a lot of gates if it didn’t snap to it, so it started pouring capacity into the market. That raised its local share but it looks like it largely took it at the expense of Southwest. United just keeps growing.

If we were to include international, United’s lead would only grow. In full year 2025, United more than doubles the number of international seats that American has in the market. If we include joint venture partners, it’s only slightly less than double. So if anything, this is understating United’s gains.

Now let’s move on to Denver where international flying is more of a rounding error.

Denver Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

This has been a fight between United and Southwest, but United has certainly taken a much greater share of the pie in the last few years. It is now the clear number one in the market. This was such a hot topic in previous years, but now it’s not even worth discussing further.

What if we head down to Houston? Remember, this is the one market where United was in first place before already.

Houston Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

And it’s still in first place. What’s interesting here is that United hasn’t changed all that much since 2019, but Southwest has fallen off more there. We are talking different airports here, of course, but Southwest has been losing share to ULCCs Spirit and Frontier and also Delta while United keeps growing. Oh, and once you consider United’s robust Latin flying from here, there isn’t a contest.

But if you want a contest, we can look at my homebase, the Los Angeles Basin. This is by design a market that can’t be dominated by any one airline, and that shows itself in the data.

Los Angeles Basin Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

You might be surprised to see that Southwest is so much bigger than the rest, but remember, we are talking about the metro area. Southwest may not be as important at LAX but it dominates all the other local airports. Number two was American before the pandemic, but once it shut off its Pacific hub, that changed quickly. Delta is number one now. If you were to add in international, I’d assume it might help Delta pad its lead on second place a little. But to win the metro area, you still have to beat Southwest and that won’t be easy to do for United.

And then there’s New York. New York’s results may look somewhat shocking at first glance.

New York City Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

Look at Delta pulling away from United to dominate New York over the last couple of years. This fits with what we saw at LaGuardia where Delta really boosted local traffic, enough to win it a Cranky Network Award this year. But do keep in mind that capacity was reduced significantly in Newark thanks to ATC issues leading to gridlock. So that had to hurt United.

But again, this is missing international. Yes, both airlines have huge international operations in New York, but United actually skews more toward international than Delta. Delta and joint venture partners have a total of 27 percent of their seats going outside the US while United and partners are north of 35 percent. When we adjust for that, it ends up being neck and neck even after Newark reductions.

I’m sure there’s some way for United to cherry-pick the numbers that help the claim it is number one, but unlike in other markets, this is no runaway. Delta and United are still both locked in a dead heat.

What about San Francisco? Oh that one is like watching a hockey stick.

San Francisco Bay Area Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

Alaska has turned away from more traditional markets from San Francisco since the Virgin America merger. It’s no surprise it keeps losing share, but what about Southwest? Southwest has its massive Oakland hub along with a substantial San Jose operation, but it has been pulling down Oakland in favor of Sacramento as of late. That may very well change, but in 2025 United and Southwest were neck-and-neck domestically. That means with international baked in, it’s no contest.

And finally, we look at DC. Was United including Baltimore or not? It’s hard to say for sure, but it’s certainly much easier without it.

Washington/Baltimore Local Passenger Share by Year

^{Data via Cirium}

I think the key finding here for United is that its Dulles operation has now surpassed American’s National operation in terms of local passengers carried. That is quite the milestone. Southwest is still far ahead, but again, remember, we are talking domestic market only. A quarter of United’s seats in DC fly internationally whereas for Southwest it’s less than three percent.

The reality here is similar to New York where overall it’s going to be very close between the two airlines. That’s a substantial change from pre-pandemic when it wasn’t even a contest, but whether United is truly the king… that’s debatable. Then again, if United isn’t counting Baltimore, well, then that’s an easy victory to claim.

I think it’s important to note that just because you have higher local share doesn’t mean that you can declare sunshine-and-rainbows. After all, what if connecting traffic were to carry a much greater premium? Is it worth buying local share by becoming more competitive? I’m not saying that’s what is happening here, because I’m not going down the revenue road today. But United’s financial results do speak for themselves.

One thing that has changed is the importance of the credit card. And to get more credit card sign-ups, you want to be as useful as possible to the local market in the hub. United certainly gets that and has made strides in improving relevance in every part of its network.

You probably think of Medjet as a great way to get medical evacuation assistance when traveling far from home, but there is more to it than that.  And considering how things are going around the world, it’s the company’s MedjetHorizon security services that are now really worth having when you travel.

Medjet’s standard medical transport memberships get you from a hospital far away to a hospital of your choosing back home when something goes wrong, among other benefits.  That’s a lot different than traditional insurance, and it provides good peace of mind, but that’s probably not what you’re thinking about right now, is it?

Right now, you’re thinking about war in Iran, the invasion of Venezuela, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the brief cartel violence in Mexico, long TSA lines, the end of the world, you name it. So your biggest concern is probably… what happens if I’m abroad and something bad happens? 

It’s not just about human-caused problems either. Just think about the recent flooding in Hawaiʻi after relentless rains.  Or consider earthquakes, hurricanes, or anything else your overstimulated brain can dream up.  There are studies from the past saying that three-fourths of travelers worry about their safety while on the road, and I’m going to bet it’s a lot higher right now.

This probably explains why MedjetHorizon has been Medjet’s fastest growing membership for the last 4 years.  It does include the medical repatriation benefits, of course, but it also gives 24/7 access to a global Crisis Response Center to not only provide advice but also provide assistance when things get bad. 

Iʻm guessing you probably wondered what exactly that means.  I know that was my first question.  What can they actually do?  Here are some general examples:

• People who have been violently assaulted can received assistance in dealing with the police and consulate — that can be very difficult to navigate alone if you don’t understand the language, you don’t know the legal processes, and you’ve been traumatized.

• People have been guided out of demonstrations that have turned violent at multiple locations, like a couple who got stuck between the police and the yellow vest demonstrators that when that demonstration turned into a riot on the Champs Elysees. 

• Medjet had members in Puerto Vallarta who were being monitored for safe sheltering in place. Had that escalated, and had it been safe, removal by land or air would have been an option.

• A family was assisted out of Cancún ahead of a hurricane in Mexico. They were flown to San Diego, where they were able to safely connect to a commercial flight home.

• Businessmen escorted from a convention center to their hotel, packed up, and taken securely to the airport because they were being stalked and threatened/harassed at a trade show in China

• A production crew was tracked from location to location during a commercial shoot in South Korea…while North Korea was threatening to send missiles into Seoul. They checked in with the security teams any time they moved locations.  “It felt good to have someone monitoring us, and knowing that if things escalated we’d have help in getting to someplace safe.” 

MedjetHorizon also provides response for disappearance (I mean who would your parents or spouse call if you did just disappear?), terrorism, wrongful detention, pandemic and more.

Nashville’s original terminal was on the west side of the field. This was a tiny terminal that was built in 1961. It was quickly overwhelmed, and so plans were created about a decade later or so to build a new terminal further to the east on the other side of the runways.

This terminal was under development for years, but it didn’t actually break ground until 1984. The need became obvious one year later when American announced it would open up a hub in Nashville as part of its plan to better blanket the country.

Once the new terminal opened in 1987, American’s nascent hub grew fast. The airline took over all of the C gates, the end of B, and it used D as its regional concourse.

The hub peaked in the early 1990s, and then American shifted course. It abandoned the Nashville hub in 1995 and, as is almost always the case, Southwest moved in to backfill.

As I mentioned earlier, other hubs have often had to downsize, but this wasn’t that big of a hub in the first place — about half the size of Delta’s Cincinnati hub — and the growth from Southwest came fast and furious. Instead of trying to figure out how to shrink, Nashville had to figure out how to grow even further.

The airport made a few early changes, creating a bigger headhouse and a single security checkpoint to better accommodate local traffic needs (versus a conneting hub). That got Nashville into the mid-2010s, but then it was time to make more significant investments as demand continued upwards.

First up was the BNA Vision plan which rebuilt and lengthened the D concourse and added a satellite concourse parallel to the C gates. That was followed by the New Horizon plan which further extended the D gates (in red below) which opened last July and then prepared to rebuild the A gates entirely (also in red).

That new A concourse will open in 2028, but until then it’s a bit of a jumble. Here’s the lay of the land today:

Delta and United use the B gates and all the cats and dogs use the C satellite. American uses part of its old hub concourse on C, though it’s down to only seven gates. Southwest has all of D alongside the rest of C. Remember, Southwest shifted its mains Southeast hub from Atlanta to Nashville in the last couple of years, so the airline is clearly hungry for more space.

How this all shifts when a new concourse opens remains to be seen, but I’d imagine it would make a lot of sense to push American to the new A gates and give Southwest control of C.

You might think this growth would be enough to keep Nashville in good shape for awhile, but the airport has grand plans. It already has designed a new Terminal 2 further to the south, across runway 13/31 which would be an enormous change when built out.

This isn’t expected to be ready until the late 2030s, if then, but there’s a whole lot of time for plans to change between now and then anyway. With Southwest seemingly quite pleased with the shift of focus from Atlanta to Nashville, that airline’s growth may very well determine when (or if) that new Terminal 2 is needed. But the chances of Nashville needing to shrink back down like other former hubs? That’s just about zero.

First, it’s important to note that these airplanes are going away quickly. In 2025, 48 of the -700s were retired. This year there are 60 airplanes leaving the fleet and I’ll assume the vast majority of those are -700s as well. So the numbers are quickly shrinking. This mesmerizing chart tells the story of fleet renewal at Southwest.

Southwest Departures by Fleet Type by Month

^{110-seaters in yellow, 140-seaters in blue, 175-seaters in red… Data via Cirium}

The original B737-200s were gone in early 2005, and it wasn’t long before the -700 NGs took over as the most important aircraft for the airline from the -300 Classics. The larger -800 NGs showed up in 2012, but they remained small as the -700s continued to grow, including with second-hand purchases that went on for years.

It was July 2018 when Southwest’s -700 fleet hit its peak, scheduling 95,076 flights for the month, or more than 3,000 daily departures. This was clearly the backbone of the fleet, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

The MAX was supposed to begin the phase-out of the NG fleet, but it ran into, shall we say, a couple of problems. First, Boeing programmed the airplane to try to crash itself in certain circumstances, so it was grounded and wouldn’t come back into service until 2021. And second, the -7 variant which was meant to replace the -700 kept failing to be certified in the aftermath of that mess. It still hasn’t been certified to this day, so Southwest has taken delivery exclusively of -8s.

As the industry came out of the pandemic in 2021, Southwest’s -800/-8 flying looked like a hockey stick. It grew remarkably fast while the -700s were retired. Southwest had entered a phase of limited-to-no fleet growth, and so it just kept replacing -700s with newer, larger airplanes.

June 2023 was the first month that Southwest scheduled more departures on the -800/-8 than on the -700, but it was by a hair. And then the -700 took the top spot again, briefly. The last time the -700 had more departures scheduled was May 2024 when there were 62,710 departures on the -700 and 62,678 on the -800/-8. Fast forward to this upcoming May and the -700 has only 47,645 departures scheduled compared to 75,737 on the -800/-8. It is shifting quickly.

Of course, the problem here is that the -700s are still a bad experience compared to the -800s/-8s which will all have the new general standard interior installed. And though the number of -700 flights continues to decline, it’s still a significant number of passengers impacted by that bad experience.

What can Southwest do? It can start to put the -700s on shorter and shorter flights. That’s exactly what it has done, though I have no idea if that was the reasoning. This chart, I found fascinating.

Southwest Average Stage Length by Fleet Type Over Time

^{Data via Cirium}

If we go back 20 years, Southwest’s -700s were the long-haul airplanes by necessity — the -200s/300s/500s couldn’t go all that far. But about 10 years ago, the -700s began to fly less than the average stage length for the airline as its newer -800s came into the fleet and did the longer-hauls.

You can see that stage length on the -800s has come down over time, and that’s because the -700s keep being replaced. But look at what has happened in the last six months, there has been a marked shift.

It was really starting around October that the -700s were deliberately put on shorter flights. Let’s take a look at the this coming May vs last May. The difference is striking.

Southwest Departures by Stage Length – May 2026 vs May 2025

^{Data via Cirium}

So, yes, Southwest has a product problem. But also yes, it is doing what it can to fix it, short of spending millions to update a fleet that isn’t going to last more than a few years more.

That doesn’t solve the problem in the short term, but I imagine we’re going to keep seeing those airplanes retire at a rapid clip. We’re apparently just going to have to grin-and-bear it until the work is done. In the meantime, if you have multiple flight options, you might want to pick the one that isn’t on a -700 if you want the better experience.

Future of air travel: Routes, Rewards and Renovations – American City Business Journals

This is a bit different than a normal Cranky on the Web, because it hasn’t happened yet. But this Monday at 11am PT/2pm ET I’ll be joining a panel with the Business Journals to talk about the industry. And YOU are welcome to come and listen without charge. Just register at this link. (Update: I thought it was without charge, but it has been reported back to me that they are charging people. I’m really sorry about that. Definitely not what I had expected.)

It was spring break over here, so Brian ended up doing the pod all by himself this week. Ok, that’s not entirely true since he had a guest… Breeze Chief Commercial Officer Lukas Johnson. Brian went pretty hard at Lukas, so you’re going to want to listen in. You can tell Brian what you thought at theairshowpod@gmail.com. To me, the biggest takeaway is that Breeze continues to improve its finances, posting a Q1 operating profit. Good for them, it’s starting to click over there.

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Delta Leads off Q1 Earnings

Delta led off Q1 earnings season this week, posting operating revenue just shy of $16 billion, with an operating profit of $501 million, giving it an operating margin of 3.2%. The overall numbers came in line with its initial guidance for the quarter, with outlook for Q2 to end up with a profit around $1 billion. It expects Q2 revenue to increase between 10 and 15% leading to an operating margin of 6-8% and approximately $1-$1.50 earnings per share. Upon hearing this, American CEO Robert Isom commented, “that’s for, like, the whole year, right?”

The adjusted revenue figure of $14.2 billion was a Q1 record for Delta and a 10% jump from 2025. Premium revenue — the only revenue Delta cares about — jumped 14% over Q1 in ’25, while its ransom renumeration from American Express was in excess of $2 billion. Domestic unit revenue grew 6%, with international growing 5% — led by Transatlantic.

As expected, fuel was a major factor on the expense side of the ledger, though high prices didn’t kick in until the back half of the quarter. Non-fuel CASM was up $0.15, about 6%, while fuel was up 8% YoY. Delta paid an average price of $2.62 per gallon at the pump, a price that goes up when counting how much Ed and Tom spent on scratch-off tickets every time they fueled up an aircraft.

Delta finished the quarter with $8.1 billion in liquidity, a figure that includes cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, Tom Brady’s Super Bowl rings, and the casita Ed built on Tom’s property in Las Vegas so he’s “available to hang when Tom is free.”

Cape Air‘s Window to the World

Cape Air Flight 5001 from Nantucket to Boston on Monday morning was forced to return to Nantucket shortly after departure when an “upper portion of the main cabin door opened while in flight.” Cranky was able to confirm with Cape Air representatives that its normal course of action is to only open the doors to the cabin while on the ground, so this situation presented a change from regular operations.

The aircraft was able to return to ACK without incident and is now out of service while it undergoes inspection. We at Cranky suggested to the same Cape Air representative that instead of taking the aircraft out of service, it just shut the door while in the air. Apparently that was considered, but passed on.

The aircraft was a 9-passenger Cessna 402C, one of 64 in Cape Air’s fleet.

American Shores Up Venezuela Plans

American announced several weeks ago it intended to resume service to Venezuela after the regime change which took place several months ago, but its original announcement was light on details.

We know more now, as the carrier shared it intends to begin flying to Caracas (CCS) as soon as this month, with service slated to resume on April 30. Envoy will operate 1x daily flights for American Eagle on an E-175 and mark the first service to the country for AA since 2019. AA is the first US airline to announce its intention to fly to Venezuela, going with the logic that Venezuelans have been busy with domestic affairs and might not realize just how bad AA is operationally, giving it a leg up on other airlines.

This comes following a March 19 announcement in which the State Department lowered Venezuela’s travel advisory to Level 3, “Reconsider Travel,” which for Venezuela is a major upgrade. It joins Colombia, Egypt, Guatelmala, Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea, and Qatar — amongst a few others — in the Level 3 club.

Spirit Sells 20

Spirit announced CSDS Asset Management as the sucker winner for 20 A320 aircraft drenched in yellow paint.

The sale includes 13 A320ceo and seven A321ceo airplanes with a street value of about $533 million. For the transaction to go through, it will have to be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on April 23. Spirit used the time-honored tradition of showing added value in the purchase for bidders, reminding them, “Buy a used Spirit jet, get a free collection of half-charged vape pens and mystery crumbs.”

Spirit said in a statement: “The sale of these aircraft will improve its financial situation by reducing related labor, maintenance, storage, flying, and other associated costs.” It left out the fact that the 20 planes it chose to sell off all have a similar BO stink that it’s been unable to get rid of, no matter what it tried. One source said the upon the sale, the planes also contained dozens of boarding passes buried deep in seat pockets from passengers who are still arguing about the bag fee they were charged at the gate.

When asked to comment to Cranky, a Spirit spokesperson told us “These planes aren’t used — they’re seasoned. Years of embedded pretzels and BuzzBallz give the cabin our signature Spirit musk.”

American Increases Basic Bag Fees

Much of the industry has raised checked bag fees in the last week due to the escalating price of fuel (which they’ll surely roll back any day now if the ceasefire in Iran holds and the price returns to the mid-$60s per barrel, RIGHT?!?), but American is tAAking it a step further, making its checked bag fees more punitive for its most price sensitive customers — those on Basic Economy tickets. AA increased its fee by $10 on most tickets, meaning $50 for the first bag and $60 for the second (there’s a $5 “discount” for paying online before travel).

But Basic Economy customers will be hit with a $55 charge for their first bag, and a $65 fee for the second for tickets purchasd on or after May 18. The $5 “discount” also applies here, bringing the price down slightly. This comes alongside a required payment to pick a seat on all Basic tickets also beginning May 18 — even for customers gullible enough to have with status on AA.

• Aeroflot‘s 2025 earnings, reported by the Russian government were exceptional. They really were. Seriously.
• Air Canada is adding new destinations for pale Canadians to work on their winter tan.
• Air China is back in the North Korea business. Sorta.
• Air India CEO Campbell “Soup” Wilson stepped down.
• Air Sénégal made a winner out of everyone that had April 9 as the day it would return its last A330-900neo.
• airBaltic is looking for investors.
• Allegiant will close its base in Savannah late this year.
• Avianca will add more than 3,000 flights to carry fans to and from matches at this summer’s World Cup.
• Jetstar‘s first refurbished Dreamliner took off for the first time.
• Marathon Airways began the long journey of serving Libya.
• Oman Air carried 1.45 million passengers in Q1.
• Saudia will return to Abu Dhabi, Amman, and Dubai on Saturday.
• Spring Airlines is considering a $72 million buyback.
• SUM Air added everything up and realized it needed to order up to eight new ATR 72-600s.
• Turkish named Ahmet Olmuştur its new CEO.
• WestJet added Copa as an interline partner.
• Wizz Air is opening a new base in Turin.

What rock group has four men who don’t sing?

Mount Rushmore.

Sure, United did show off some big, new, shiny toys like its Elevated interior on the B787-9. But on the surface, anyone can outfit an airplane with flat beds. It’s the little things that make a big difference, and I found employee after employee very eager to show off those little things everywhere I turned.

An airline’s layout of passenger accommodations — LOPA for short — is like the blueprint for each aircraft. It’s the LOPA that shows where seats are as well as all the monuments that lie inside — galleys, lavs, etc. When it comes to a LOPA, there is only so much you can do. There is a finite amount of space on any given tube, but that doesn’t mean there is no wiggle room at all. And some airlines are better at maximizing their use of space than others.

Perhaps nothing has shown this off more in recent times than the United A321neo LOPA. On this airplane, United fit 20 First Class seats plus 57 Economy Plus and 123 regular Economy seats for a total of 200. Delta has 194 seats while American is at 196, so you would imagine that United’s configuration would be knee-crunching and disliked.

It’s not.

Filled with big screens full of content, wifi (faster Starlink wifi coming soon), and even a snack bar in the back, United says the A321neo has the airline’s highest customer satisfaction scores in the entire fleet. Perhaps this proves the point that while legroom matters, it’s the cumulative impact of every little thing that can make or break someone’s experience. And expertise with a LOPA can help enable those little things.

This LOPA-ninjaing was on full display at United’s media day on nearly all of its announcements.

For example, take the Relax Row which is a repurposed Air New Zealand Skycouch that will turn a set of three coach seats into a larger bed area on five rows of the airlines widebodies. This product does require adding an extra inch of legroom in those rows. That might be an issue except that in that back cabin where the seats will be, there is extra room available. I imagine the idea of wasted space gnawed at United, so it found something to do with it. This means United can take those five inches to put them to work generating revenue.

Or take the new Polaris flat beds on the transcon A321 Coastliner as well as the A321XLR. The 1-1 herringbone configuration seems to be the default way of fitting in beds on the narrowbody, but United knew that there had been concern about the claustrophobic coffin feeling onboard. It’s no wonder why:

The geometry of the airplane requires using a seat like this or forfeiting too much space, and it does look narrow here, doesn’t it?

But what did United do? It realized that if it lowered the walls a little, carved out more shoulder room, and then installed a translucent wall behind the traveler, it would create a much greater feeling of space and comfort with more light. No, it doesn’t make it so you face the window, which explains this look on my face, but it does still feel different than what others have done.

Then there’s the fancy Polaris Studio suite at the front of each cabin on the new B787-9 with the Elevated interior.

As I understand it, there is an issue with access to the crew rest area that makes it more challenging to put a big screen in those seats. But United figured it out. That new screen is a giant at 27 inches.

Contrast this with American which went with a smaller screen, because it was having trouble with certification. It just feels a whole lot different.

It’s not just up front either. When I walked to the back of the B787, one of the original project managers wanted to show off the 13 inch screens back there. This put United at the top of the class with airlines like Emirates and Japan Airlines. In the US, I don’t think anyone is above 12 inches. Is that a dealbreaker? No. But that extra inch is just part of the overall effort by United to keep improving the product throughout the airplane.

We can talk about the introduction of a closet and the elimination of overhead bins on the new CRJ450, or we can go back in time to the CRJ550 which did something similar. It’s not easy to be creative on a small, regional fleet. This is definitely creative.

To me, these small things were what United really had on display at media day. You can put the headlines in a press release, but when you step onboard and feel the difference, that’s where it will really shine. United seems to get that better than anyone these days.

[Dislosure: Embraer paid for my flights and hotel for the event]

It was a strange sensation not having to check in 24 hours in advance. But sure enough, I didn’t bother until later on when getting my boarding pass was a non-event. I had already reserved seat 18A (a freebie when you’re on a standard Choice fare), so I threw it into my Google Wallet and forgot about it.

At the airport, I realized I hadn’t flown from Long Beach in awhile. The rental car counters have now fully moved into the historic terminal, so that’s a big upgrade.

But I just sailed through security, thanking the TSA workers for coming to work as I went. (You know, not a lot of people want to work when they aren’t actually getting paid.)

I was at gate 1 on this flight, so I walked down to the south end of the terminal to wait to board. Southwest has set this up with a sign for pre-boarding right in front of the counter. Then to the side, there are two lines, one for odd-numbered boarding groups and another for even.

They announced that group 1 should line up on the odd side with group 2 on the even side. I didn’t hear another announcement about later groups, but people all figured it out. Once the line emptied, the next group filled in.

There was some confusion from people who showed up too late for their boarding group, however. They got into the pre-board line and then just cut in front of whatever group was boarding. It was somewhat awkward.

Somehow I was in group 3. I don’t know why, because I have no status or credit card, but honestly I didn’t even care. I could squeeze my bag under my seat for the short flight if no bins were available, but it’s not like I was going to wait around.

While the line at the ramp at the front of the aircraft got full, I walked to the back where I walked up the empty stairs and swam forward to get to my seat.

Southwest 4039
March 18, 2026

From Long Beach
➤ Scheduled Departure: 240p
➤ Actual Departure: 235p
➤ From Gate: 1
➤ Wheels Up: 247p
➤ From Runway: 30

To Las Vegas
➤ Wheels Down: 331p
➤ On Runway: 1L
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 350p
➤ Actual Arrival: 337p
➤ At Gate: B19

Aircraft
➤ Type: Boeing 737-8 MAX
➤ Delivered: June 24, 2025
➤ Registered: N8962L, msn 68925
➤ Livery: Hot Dog on a Stick

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 18A
➤ Load: ~95% Full
➤ Flight Time: 44m

I stepped onboard the nearly-new B737-8 MAX and marveled at those big ole’ bins.

There would be no problem of bin space on this flight, even though it was nearly full. This was also my first flight on the airplane with the seats that have USB power built in. I found them comfortable.

Once boarded up, the flight attendants put the airplane into Christmas mode as we pushed back a few minutes early.

We got down to the runway, and then we took off into the sweltering summer-like day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as we soared over the port before circling back toward Las Vegas.

Once in the air, mood-lighting switched again to a cool blue, clearly reflecting the fact that the air conditioning was finally catching up and cooling us down.

I didn’t need to charge my phone, but I mean, why not? So I plugged it in, and I ended up with more charge than I had before I started despite constant usage.

I also logged into wifi which was humming along quite nicely. This is not the Southwest I know, but I think I can get used to it. It’ll be even better with Starlink onboard.

The flight attendants ran through with a quick water service, but they didn’t have time for anything else. Las Vegas was landing on the 1s which means we had a straight shot in. That’s always good for shaving a few minutes off the already-short flight, but it’s also a very pretty (and usually bumpy) approach.

After landing, our gate was ready, so we parked nice and early. Every time I fly Southwest out of a B gate, my mind immediately races back to the old America West hub. It is a wonderful and nostalgic feeling.

The flight on Southwest, however? It was anything but nostalgic. It was pretty damn good. Was there anything bad? Well, I mentioned some of the boarding kinks that could be worked out, but other than that, I just wish I had a different seatmate who wasn’t stinking up the entire cabin constantly. Not cool, bro. But hey, Southwest can’t control everything.

Now, on the return, things were different. Instead of a flashy new MAX, we had an ancient B737-700 as our chariot. And that has a much worse feel.

Again I had checked in on my phone, but I decided to go a little early to the airport. With all the noise about TSA wait times being a problem and no way that I could find to get real-time details at LAS, I decided to get to the airport about 1h30m before departure.

That was completely unnecessary. There were no lines at all. I thanked the ID checker for coming to work and said something like “I don’t know how you do it.” His response? “I’m also a male stripper.” Well done, sir.

On the other side, I slowly ambled along the C concourse. It really is amazing what you see in Vegas. You wouldn’t see anything like this in any other airport:

I made it over to C7 and had time to kill despite the long walk. I sat down and worked. After a lengthy deboarding process, the gate agents were ready to board us quickly. Unlike in Long Beach, Vegas has screens that flash your boarding group so it was much more intuitive. Again I had group 3, and after a clearing a long line in a hot jet bridge, I trudged back to my seat in row 19.

Southwest 1211
March 20, 2026

From Las Vegas
➤ Scheduled Departure: 1015a
➤ Actual Departure: 1017a
➤ From Gate: C7
➤ Wheels Up: 1032a
➤ From Runway: 1R

To Long Beach
➤ Wheels Down: 1115a
➤ On Runway: 30
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 1130a
➤ Actual Arrival: 1119a
➤ At Gate: 1

Aircraft
➤ Type: Boeing 737-7H4
➤ Delivered: April 13, 2005
➤ Registered: N210WN, msn 34162
➤ Livery: Hot Dog on a Stick

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 19F
➤ Load: ~85% Full
➤ Flight Time: 43m

This airplane looked like… well, it looked more like what you’d expect from the old Southwest. There were extra legroom seats, but they were all the same color. They didn’t stand out the way they do on the new aircraft.

I sat down in my window, and waited as the airplane filled up. We pushed back only a couple minutes late, but after a short taxi we were airborne quickly. Like the MAX, this airplane also had mood lighting.

Or not. But hey, this lighting did scream a yellowed “meh,” which absolutely matched my mood after two days in Vegas. That fast internet I had on the way out was non-functioning on this aircraft. (Thanks, Anuvu.) Technically I could connect, and I did have one text come in. I also was able to load a speed test page on Google, but then it errored. I gave up after a few tries to get anything useful.

Instead, I pulled up live TV to try to watch some March Madness basketball, but even that was buffering. They can’t get rid of this crap legacy system soon enough.

We cruised at a lofty 30,000 feet for our short trip. The flight attendants came through with water and coffee, but that was it. It wasn’t long before we were descending into a warm/smoggy/hazy LA Basin.

After an early landing, I got off into the blazing sun and quickly headed inside. This was certainly a real contrast to the new Southwest. Those -700s need to go before the airline can truly feel like something modern, but when you get a new ride, it is a very nice way to fly.

Let’s start with the bigger news, Basic fares are coming to premium economy (Premium Plus) and business class (Polaris) for long-haul travel. Strangely, they aren’t happening in domestic First Class yet, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because long-haul coordinates with joint venture partners, and that’s where the focus has been to this point. Or maybe domestic First just isn’t a big enough pot of money to move the needle.

The implementation is almost entirely what you’d expect. Here’s the Polaris chart:

The only surprise here is that lounge acces is still included for Basic fares, it’s just United Club access instead of the Polaris lounge. That’s the only thing here more generous than I would have expected. Everything else is pretty much what I expected we’d see.

Premium Plus is exactly the same except, obviously, there is no lounge access for any Premium Plus fares. And the ability to upgrade from Premium Plus is far more important than than it is from Polaris.

The Basic, er, Base product is not rolling out until “later this year.” I do have to assume this wasn’t going to be announced this early until plans changed. After all, just a couple weeks ago, Lufthansa Group rolled out its Basic fares (called “Light”) for premium long-haul but it was excluding North America. If United was really only announcing a couple weeks later, I can’t imagine that would have been held back by Lufthansa.

Instead, what I must assume happened here is United had planned to do it at some point, but with oil remaining high, it continues to work hard to try to offset the impact with higher fares. And one way to do that is to create a Basic structure which pushes people up to higher fares.

As is always the case, Basic isn’t created for people to buy. It exists because there are some people who won’t buy up to a higher fare, but most people will. And that’s United’s goal here… it wants people to pay more for the same thing they get today.

This announcement feels a little rushed in that the rollout date hasn’t even been stated, but it will sure make it easier for United to face Wall St analysts on the upcoming earnings call. “Look at all the things we’re doing!”

That’s also where the bag fee increase comes into play. The bag fee is the new change fee. It continues to spiral higher and higher with seemingly no end. (Remember when change fees hit $200 for a domestic ticket?)

JetBlue kicked off this party with an increase of $4 on its base level bag fees, with the lowest rate rising from $35 to $39, though it varies by market and timing and some rose by $9.

United saw that and laughed. It took it much further, now raising the lowest pre-paid bag fee from $35 to $45. That’s a $10 increase, but it’s also a $5 discount off what you’d pay if you did it within 24 hours of travel. So in some cases, the first bag on a domestic trip is now a whopping $50. The second is $10 more. Third checked bags and beyond are going up even higher. Instead of $150, it’s now a $200 fee.

Of course, you can offset this by getting an airline credit card or having elite status, both of which give you at least one free checked bag. But this puts us into that hamster wheel. Now that the benefit of having no first bag fee is more valuable, shouldn’t the annual fee on that credit card go up too? Just wait, it’ll happen eventually.

To its credit, United did not try to say it was doing any of this because of higher fuel prices. It just said on bag fees that it hadn’t touched them in two years. But we all know why this is happening now, and it is most certainly tied to fuel. And no, once fuel prices go back down, these fare structures and fees will not.

This week on The Air Show, we zoom out. What is oil doing to airlines in other parts of the world? It’s not good, but Brian Sumers spoke with a couple of carriers as he reports back.

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United Adds New Premium Fares, Basically

United Airlines announced on Friday it will begin adding tiered fares across all cabins, bringing basic premium tickets including basic Polaris to market this month.

The carrier will offer three fare options — basic, standard, and flexible — across its many offerings including long-haul international, transcon, and Hawai’i flights that currently feature its Polaris product. What will Basic Polaris fares look like? Well besides the shame of booking a basic fare, and a forced connection in Newark for basic customers as a means of punishment, they’ll also:

• receive only one checked bag for free (down from two)
• pay to select seats
• not receive United Polaris Lounge Access (but access to regular United Clubs still remains…for now)
• not be able to change or refund
• not be able to upgrade to the Polaris Studio

Of course United is selling this as offering customers more options when the reality is that the current price for a standard ticket will become the basic price, and a purchase with the traditional bundle will cost more because that’s how these things work.

Delta Looks to Amazon for Wi-Fi Upgrade

We’ve come a long way as passengers when it comes to in-flight internet access. Gone are the days of paying $19.99 for 30 minutes of slow email downloads from Gogo using air-to-ground technology. As the expectation bar continues to be raised, domestic U.S. passengers now expect free, fast Wi-Fi from gate-to-gate and anything else is unacceptable.

Delta Air Lines announced its plans to introduce Amazon Leo on a significant portion of its fleet beginning in 2028. We initially thought this was just CEO Ed Bastian paying another famous person to be his friend, but Leo is “low earth orbit” and not Leonardo diCaprio. The two companies will start with 500 aircraft, and the integration will include expanding seatback entertainment as well. The on-board experience comes five years after Delta debuted free connectivity for SkyMiles members in 2023.

Delta will begin with its narrowbody fleet that does the bulk of its domestic flying. Delta Chief Marketing and Product Officer Ranjan Goswami said there will be “commerce opportunities” as well. If we aren’t able to order something on Amazon Prime in the air and have it delivered to the arrival gate, then we riot. Maybe we’ll see a world where Prime Members receive expedited Biscoff delivery in-flight or receive first pick of meals.

This tie-up comes as United and Alaska/Hawaiian have recently began offering SpaceX’s Starlink on-board with Southwest joining the party soon. As American considers bringing back seatback entertainment to some of its aircraft, it is looking into also installing GTE Airfones to provide instant voice connectivity.

Air Canada CEO Bids Adios

Air Canada President and CEO Michael Rousseau will retire by the end of September following two decades at the airline after he committed the sin of addressing the public following a deadly incident last month in English only and not both English and French.

Following the fatal collision at New York/LGA involving an Air Canada plane and an emergency vehicle on the ground that left two pilots dead and dozens of passengers injured, Rousseau and the airline released a four minute video in which he acknowleged what a somber day it was for both Air Canada and all Canadians. He also offered condolences to airline staff and families of the victims. The video was in English, with subtitles in both English and French. Canadian prime minster Mark Carney said the video showed a “lack of compassion,” while Québec-based politicians demanded Rousseau’s resignation.

The French-lovers went as far as accusing Rousseau of showing a “gross lack of respect” to the Quebecois family of one of the deceased pilots, Antoine Forest. While it’s not the place of non-Canadians to comment on or judge the countries bilingual policies, this does feel like a step too far for a seemingly competent CEO who’s biggest flaw is his lack of French language skills. Regardless, the position is open, and while it may not say it directly, you might want to have something beyond 8th grade French proficiency if interested.

Summer in the Citi…AAdmirals Clubs Add BrAAnding

Later this month, American will add Citi branding at the entrance of Admirals Clubs because it’s a “testament to the depth of our partnership as both American and Citi look for ways to enhance every aspect of the travel journey for our customers,” which is Scott Long, American’s SVP of AAdvantage using coded language to say “Citi has paid, is paying, and will pay us a buttload of money whether we operate flights on-time or not; they say jump, we say how high.”

What this really does is open up the possibility to expand corporate sponsorships across the travel journey much like libraries, hospitals, and other public venue offer naming rights in exchange for donations. “This tower of Salty Death Mix was provided by Proctor & Gamble.” “Pratt Whitney is proud to bring AA customers these cookies which were set out before opening this morning and are yet to be touched.”

Keep in mind that AA recently dropped Barclays and entered into an exclusive credit card agreement with Citi, giving each of the big four airlines in the U.S. a credit card overlord (Delta: Amex, Southwest and United: Chase).

The branding will debut at Chicago/ORD, Dallas/DFW, Los Angeles, and Miami with it expanding to other Admirals Clubs in the system throughout the year.

Willie Walsh is Back, Goes to IndiGo

Can you be back if you never really left? Longtime British Airways CEO and current Director General of IATA is returning to run an airline, as he will become the CEO of Indian LCC IndiGo beginning on August 3. Walsh’s first crack at running an airline came at Aer Lingus in 2001, before moving on to BA in ’05. During his time at British Airways, Walsh oversaw the carrier’s merger with Iberia in 2011 to create IAG, and brought in a new era where premium class passengers would pay for their seat assignments and like it.

After retiring from BA in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, Walsh took office as the IATA Director General in April 2021. He’s been in the role for five years now. No one has quite yet figured out what the Director General of the IATA does, and Walsh won’t be the one to solve the mystery as he moves on from the role this summer.

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers resigned last month amidst intense scrutiny after significant disruptions and cancellations due to new pilot roster rules left passengers stranded across India late last year. IndiGo controls about two-thirds of the domestic market in India and Walsh will be stepping into a job on day one where he will need to regain confidence of domestic customers. He was hired in-part because he said he could do just that, though when asked about his plan for domestic travelers, he responded “what’s domestic?”

• Abra Group finally released its 2025 earnings.
• Air France-KLM made a non-binding offer for a minority stake in TAP.
• Alaska unveiled its international business class suites.
• American‘s coordination with Qantas on fares, schedules, and inventory will continue on an interim basis.
• Asiana is expected to see its remaining 36% acquired by Korean this summer.
• Delta‘s A330-300 N813NW, which was operating as DL104 on Sunday is under investigation after fire and flames came from its left-side PW4000 turbofan just after takeoff.
• Finnair continues to lease E190s and ATRs for Norra.
• Fiji Airways cut its state-backed debt to $162 million.
• IAG is reducing its share capital by about $13 million.
• Icelandair entered into an LOI to purchase a 49% share of Fly Play Europe.
• ITA officially joined Star Alliance. When asked to comment Star Alliance officials were seen holding their noses and had no comment.
• JetBlue is raising baggage fees, and everyone else will follow if they haven’t already.
• Korean is retiring the KAL brand.
• Magnifica Air is seeking three magnificent A321neos for a dry lease.
• t’way Air rebranded as Trinity Airways, marking the end of an e’ra around these parts.
• Vietnam Airlines is cutting some domestic service.

Why did the ram go off the cliff?

He didn’t see the ewe turn.

Let us start with a satellite look at the mighty SFO to understand the original problem:

The airport has two pairs of parallel runways. In the ideal operational situation, all arrivals are on the 28s, meaning airplanes fly from the right of this photo and approach over the bay before landing to the west/northwest. Nearly all departures go off the 1s, meaning they start at the bottom and head north/northeast. Some heavier departures will use the longer 28s as well, when needed.

It’s those arrivals on the 28s that have long been the source of pain at this airport. As you can see, those runways are not far apart — a mere 750 feet. Since the separation is less than 2,500 feet, it has required implementation of special FAA procedures to increase capacity. At SFO, where capacity is at a premium, they have run slightly offset, side-by-side approaches where airplanes get much closer than would normally be allowed. It is a spectacular sight to see, but more importantly, this has kept capacity at the airport up at 54 arrivals per hour.

The problem is that this is only allowed when the weather is clear. And very often, it is not. See, Karl the Fog loves the area, and he spends a lot of time blanketing the airport, especially in the mornings. That means arrival rates get slowed dramatically, and operations are disrupted.

They’ve tried all different things to increase capacity at the airport, but now, the FAA has decided to go in an alternate direction. It is banning the simultaneous approaches outright.

In the near term, this will have an even more dramatic effect, because they are closing two runways — both of the 1/19s — for six months for rehabilitation. That means all operations will have to use the 10/28s and that forces the arrival rate down to 36 per hour.

Even when that construction is done, the expectation is that the arrival rate will only return to 45 per hour, not 54, because of this new policy. What does that mean in reality?

I pulled up Cirium schedule data to see the real impact. Here are all scheduled arrivals at the airport on a random Monday in June:

SFO Scheduled Arrivals by Hour – June 15, 2026

^{Data via Cirium}

That lower line shows the arrival rate while construction is happening. Temporary reductions are nothing new. They’re annoying, but they aren’t a huge concern on their own. Airlines can and always will change schedules to adjust when construction is being done.

But if it does only get back to 45 per hour after the construction, well, it’s still going to be a problem for the regular schedule. In particular, arrivals between 7 and 10pm are going to be awful. They are stacked pretty tight, and remember, this is only scheduled traffic. General aviation will make this worse.

What’s most remarkable about all this to me is that it has happened so quickly and seemingly so arbitrarily. People at more than one airline have told me that this was a complete surprise that was sprung on the airlines. That makes no sense at all since the airlines, especially United, will have to make schedule alterations.

I can’t help but wonder if after the Air Canada accident at LaGuardia where the airplane ran into a fire truck, they scared themselves into sacrificing airport capacity very quickly to help protect against the potential for another screw up. I’m sure they’ll deny it, but even if that is the case, there’s no real excuse for this taking the airlines by surprise.

Now, in the title of this post, I talked about upside. So… what is that upside? Well, the airport is likely now going to be much better operationally. If capacity is the same in good or bad weather, the airlines will create a schedule that works no matter what. Fog rolls in? Beautiful sunny day? It’s all the same. Delays should drop.

To be clear, this upside is in no way worth it. I just wanted to point out that an upside does exist. Airlines are going to have to cut back schedules. Options for customers will be worse. Fares will be higher. And all this to alter a system that has worked just fine for many years.

I’ve only talked about SFO here, but I imagine there is also an impact in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, Newark, Philadelphia, St Louis, and Seattle. By that, I mean those are airports that have parallel runways with less than 2,500 feet in between them. I don’t expect there to be big impacts there just because of how those airports operate normally, but I can’t say I know for sure.

Bigger picture, this is just another example of a government trying to make the system run well by reducing capacity. It is completely silent on long-term growth needs. The FAA should be building a system to accommodate traffic demand well into the future, but right now they are just trying to cap everything and make operations run more smoothly. We need a whole lot more than that.

Early feedback was positive on Southwest’s move to assigned seating as part of a much broader shift in the airline’s business model. But then, people got quiet after the initial fanfare subsided. Southwest had become just like every other airline, so travelers just stopped talking about it. This was a problem for an airline that had become addicted to free media coverage. This reliance amplified in recent years with cost pressures rising. After the relentless, regular news releases filled with changes in the last year dried up, it needed to do something new to regain that benefit.

That parade of changes last year was thanks to Elliott Investment Management, which took an activist position in the airline. It had laid out what it wanted to see in order to improve financial performance, and CEO Bob Jordan dutifully ensured all of those were implemented. Once that was finished, Bob went back to Elliott to float some other ideas that his team had pitched. They said no to all of them. So, he went and sulked while trying to figure out a plan to appease his overlords.

Bob thought about raising the checked bag fee, but every airline does that, so would anyone even talk about it? He then considered painting the fleet in a new livery, but he was heard mumbling something about not wanting to make Papa Gary mad. So instead, he turned to the idea of returning to open seating.

In the release announcing the switch back, CEO Bob Jordan laid out the rationale by saying:

The media coverage we received after making the change was such a thrill, and it really energized our People. Now that it has died down, everyone seems kind of sad, so I wanted to do something to cheer them up. And you know, advertising is pretty expensive, so I came up with this idea to help ease the cost burden while also rallying our People to win.”

COO Andrew Watterson seemed somewhat less enthusiastic about the change since his team will have to reverse all the work that has been done recently to enable assigned seating. He noted, “Well, at least we didn’t throw away the old boarding poles yet. So we’ve got that going for us… which is nice.”

The hardest part was working to figure out how to deal with the assignment of extra legroom seating on the aircraft. CFO Tom Doxey reportedly put his foot down on spending money under Bob’s first plan to reconfigure the airplanes again, so extra legroom will remain. That’s when the decision was made to just bring back EarlyBird priority boarding and let people sit wherever they want when they board. This makes EarlyBird a whole lot more appealing which means they can make a lot more money selling it.

If this move is successful, Bob said he wasn’t against the idea of bringing back more past innovations that have fallen by the wayside. When I asked him what he had in mind, he said the first thing on his list was to bring back lounge seating at the front of each airplane, but that was closely followed by flight attendant hot pants.

When I asked how the transition back to open seating would occur, Bob shrugged, mumbled something about how this wasn’t his problem, and told me to talk to Andrew . Andrew said that unlike the original change, they weren’t going to do a hard transition at the end of schedule. Instead, he said travelers would just take their seat number and move the letter to the before the row number. That will be the boarding position. If you were in seat 18A, you’ll now board with number A18.

With this simple switch, it enables the airline to implement the change immediately, as of today. Or actually, it will be as of never, because… Happy April Fools’ Day to all.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

After getting off the TAR flight, I again was told I had to leave security to make a connection, so I did. Mazatlán is one of those places that has seen some decline in tourism from its headiest day thanks to narco-related concerns. But it was fairly busy on this day.

It took about five minutes to get through security this time, probably the longest wait I’ve had outside of Mexico City.

On the other side, they hadn’t posted a gate. They apparently don’t post gates here until 50 minutes before departure. I did, however, see a lounge and it accepted Priority Pass, so I went over there and found a comfy chair where I could work. The lounge had drinks with some light snacks but that was it. I didn’t really care. I just wanted a nice seat.

When the gate posted, the lounge attendant came through and told everyone. I slowly made my way to the gate, not realizing that the reason it posts as early as it does is because there is one heck of a walk. You have to go to one of two concourses, but the walkway goes on forever before you ever see a gate.

On this concourse, there’s one gate with a jet bridge, and everyone else has to walk downstairs to a holding area for ground boarding. My flight was downstairs.

The boarding area was packed, and they had posted signs for boarding groups one and two. I was in five. Now, I can’t think of a better way to describe Volaris’s boarding than being both simultaneously organized and chaotic. Once groups one and two were moving, they put up signs for three and four a little further back.

And then later, groups five and six went up. The thing was, they were boarding both lines at the same time, which I found very confusing since you’d think it would go in number order. Instead, everyone just had to merge as they walked out.

They were boarding both front and back stairs, but that just led to insanity with people pushing forward from the back of the aircraft and backwards from the front. At some point, an agent came and asked people where they were sitting to try and direct people in the right direction. I was told to stay in the front.

As I waited, I noticed this US-registered airplane could have used a paint job. It also had an errant white engine cowling. But hey, it would do the trick.

Volaris 3191
January 22, 2026

From Mazatlán
➤ Scheduled Departure: 151p
➤ Actual Departure: 147p
➤ From Gate: 8
➤ Wheels Up: 201p
➤ From Runway: 27

To Tijuana
➤ Wheels Down: 259p
➤ On Runway: 27
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 319p
➤ Actual Arrival: 304p
➤ At Gate: 20

Aircraft
➤ Type: Airbus A320-233
➤ Delivered: November 6, 2014
➤ Registered: N525VL, msn 6332
➤ Livery: Standard White

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 14A
➤ Load: 90% Full
➤ Flight Time: 1h58m

On the aircraft, I was surprised to see some pretty comfy-looking seats as I approached my row.

As we pushed back, I saw that the interior matched the exterior. This airplane could use some love.

This was a full flight, and for the first time on this trip, I had someone in the middle next to me. That was a pretty good run.

I noticed that Volaris felt more like a ULCC than any other airline I’d flown. There was advertising on the seatback, advertising on the overhead bins, and they had removed the net from the seatback pocket, presumably to make it so you couldn’t leave trash onboard.

We got up into the sky pretty quickly, and the seatbelt sign was off very fast. I was surprised it stayed off until the descent despite some bumps along the way.

Annoyingly, there were a lot of high clouds. So, we climbed up and sat in an on-again-off-again thin layer that was above a solid layer. Why was this annoying? Because I couldn’t see anything. Volaris has an IFE option that costs MXN 20 (about $1), but I didn’t really want to bother. There was no wifi. Instead, I just turned on some music and stared out the window at a whole lot of white.

The flight attendants came through and did a service along with multiple trash pickups. The crews looked to be working hard, though I didn’t buy anything myself.

At the top of the Sea of Cortés, I could see little bits of shimmering water lead into brown as the clouds thinned. But then, they thickened right back up as a system was swirling off the Pacific coast. We came in for a landing from the east and slowly made our way through multiple layers of clouds before touching down early.

Every single one of my flights on this trip was on-time, which is some kind of miracle.

Getting off the plane was pretty interesting. The flight attendants walked a couple rows from the back and front, and as they passed the row they opened the bins. The people between them and the doors got up and left in an orderly manner. Everyone else stayed seated. I wish everyone would do this, because it was ideal. You know what… here’s a video to show you.

We were dumped off in one of the ground-boarding gates, 20, so I made my way upstairs to find that unlike the smaller airports, Tijuana is built for connections and you don’t have to leave the secure area. I had about 500 pesos left, so I tried to buy food and a few other things before I found my way out.

In baggage claim, there is a sign for CBX. You go up the escalators and then you have to scan your CBX ticket, your passport, and your boarding pass. I do not recommend electronic boarding passes if you’re doing this, because I had to find mine and the thing timed out too quickly.

Once I got through, then it was time to walk across the bridge. Finally, I was back home. Sort of.

Of course I had to go through immigration, and I apparently broke the camera sensor. It first gave me an X and then it just said System Error, so I had to talk to an agent. Maybe it was this scruffy beard that had been growing for the last few weeks.

I had bought a ticket through CBX on the 4:30pm Limousine Bus which went to Santa Ana, and I could take an Uber home from there. But when I walked up to the counter, the woman there said no, I would have to take the 5:30pm bus. It was 4pm at this point. I was not happy, but she got her supervisor who spoke better English to tell me that some business had bought the seats on the 4:30pm bus so I was bumped. Not that I had another choice.

Or did I?

Next door was an Omex Bus which was apparently heading up to LA with a stop in Fullerton. This was no different for me, so I asked when their next bus was leaving. The friendly agent said 5 minutes. Giddyup. I bought a ticket for $35, $5 less than the Limousine Bus.

I asked the Limousine Bus people for a refund, and they said no. That’s ridiculous, but I didn’t have time to fight. I resolved to take that up another day, and after emailing CBX, they did refund me.

The Omex Bus was a delight. It had plenty of legroom, a footrest, and in-seat video. The video, however, was all in Spanish. Even English movies were dubbed. Oh, and it also had wifi. I was happy.

My grand adventure had come to an end.

Before we get into the weeds, let’s talk about operating margin. December was particularly good for Spirit. I shouldn’t say that. It was relatively good for Spirit. January fell off further, but that is not in any way a surprise. January is always worse than December since you only have a few days of holiday travel that month.

Spirit Operating Margin by Month

Now, you’ll remember that November was the first month when the new, much smaller Spirit made its debut. Despite a small bump in capacity around the holidays, it stayed relatively flat until early spring break began in Feb.

In other words, the performance in December and January finally has a baseline to compare against, using the November data. To start, let’s look at the cost side of the equation. There is some wonkiness in here.

Some of the December numbers look like cost timing issues. For example, landing fees were off more than a quarter compared to November, but they bounced right back up in January. Aircraft rent went in the complete opposite direction, with December seeming oddly high. This would smooth out when looking at quarterly numbers, so we just have to take the choppiness as the way things are going to be.

There is one big cost issue we need to address. I noticed that after November salaries had dropped only 7 percent from October, December salaries were relatively flat. But that then plunged by 17 percent in January. I imagine there was something around the timing of severance combined with when people left that delayed the cost benefit of the reductions in the business. So, January is probably more indicative of future months, but we really don’t know what the steady state will be yet, especially since more cuts are coming.

There is a fair bit of noise in these numbers, and there’s not much we can do about that other than speculate.

On the revenue side, December was a solid improvement, but there was backsliding in January. All that being said, every month is still a far cry from the horrendous 8.2 cent unit revenue in September. After November came in at 10.0 cents, December surged to 11.1 cents while January fell back off to 10.2 cents. But, as unit costs come down as the old Spirit sheds its excess cost base, the margin should improve further if unit revenue can stay up.

So, that’s the good news, and it’s not even that good because the airline is still losing money. Now, for the bad news.

The operation has completely fallen off the rails. In November, Spirit canceled 2.1 percent of flights. That rose to 3.3 percent in December and 6.5 percent in January. Canceling that many flights does help a little in the sense that you consolidate people from those canceled flights on to your other flights, helping boost revenue on the flights that operated. But it also erodes any trust in the operation that existed, and it pushes more people away, especially those who want to pay more money for that new premium-ish product.

For what it’s worth, things have not improved since then. February looks like it was a point or so worse while March is on track to erode even more, closer to 10 percent, or just under it. This is not a healthy airline, operationally speaking.

Of course, we haven’t even touched on the 800 lb gorilla… the war in Iran and rising fuel costs. None of that is reflected in any of these numbers. We won’t see that even start to be reflected until March, but when it hits, it’s going to push Spirit ever closer to that ledge.

This weekend, the airline cut another nearly 20 percent of capacity in May to mid-June, spread across the network. It’s possible some of this is just lining up future schedules with the reduced fleet even better, but let’s just take it at face value. The airline is trying to shrink, shrink, and shrink again until it finds profit. That is not easy to do.

Trump says he’ll sign order to pay TSA agents as travel chaos continues – NPR Morning Edition

The question of what travelers can do to be made whole for their expenses due to missed flights thanks to outrageous TSA lines continues to be asked. And the reality is… not much. The airlines aren’t going to pay, and nor should they. The feds should be on the hook, but as I lamented to Morning Edition, they can’t even figure out how to pay their employees.

Dayton airport security wait times still less than 5 minutes; CVG around 30 minutes – Dayton Daily News

Everyone in the country is freaking out about long security lines, but of course, not every airports is impacted. In fact, the vast majority of airports aren’t.

United Shows Off Its New Toys at Media Day

United Airlines held a media day this week, and it rolled out its fanciest new airplanes, including a surprise glow-up on even the lowly CRJ200.

In all, United will take on 250 new airplanes in the next two years, with the idea that if it takes all the capacity in Chicago, it might as well take all the airplanes also.

The carrier said it plans to take delivery of:

• 47 B787-9 Dreamliners with the so-called Elevated interior (33 of which will have 99 premium seats with the rest at a mere 83)
• 40 A321neo Coastliners out of 50 total on order which, to be clear, will fly between the coasts and will not actually “coast” through the sky
• 41 CRJ450s which are a 41-seat, dual-class version of the CRJ200
• 28 A321XLR out of 50 total on order to fly primarily shorter European flights run by the B757 today
• 119 B737 MAX which might even include the -10 when/if it ever gets certified
• 18 A321neos in the regular configuration which sounds really boring after all those other airplanes

A spokesperson for every other airline on earth said they would collectively be waiting until 2028 to be able to take delivery of a plane again.

United detailed the order in its press release in a performance of PR-speak that even the North Korean Information Ministry would be impressed with. The CRJs are described as having a private jet experience for those traveling in first, while the A321 XLRs had three seats taken out to include a snack bar at the back of the plane, a clear dig at American’s configuration on the same airplane. We’re so confident that’ll last until the next economic downturn that we’ve pre-written the “United Removes Snack Bar to add seats to A321s” story, so it’s in the can for when the time comes.

For more on media day, see yesterday’s post on crankyflier.com.

JetBlue Keeps Growing FLL While Rumors Swirl

The rumor mill was busy this week as it was reported that JetBlue had hired advisors to investigate being sold to Alaska, Southwest, or United. (Obvious candidate American, we should note, was notably absent from that list.) But while rumors spread like wildfire, JetBlue is just doing what it does best… growing Fort Lauderdale like crazy.

JetBlue announced this week that starting in July, it will finally fulfill the dreams of all South Florida residents by beginning daily nonstop service from FLL to Cleveland. In addition, it will increase frequencies from sub-daily to once daily on the far less exciting routes to Aruba, Norfolk, and St Maarten. But wait, there’s more. JetBlue will also add an extra daily flight to this laundry list of cities:

• Atlanta
• Jacksonville
• Las Vegas
• Newark
• Philadelphia
• Santo Domingo

This spirited increase in service further clarifies that JetBlue is hellbent on owning FLL, and it’s doing a good job of trying to make that happen.

Air Canada Jazz CRJ900 Hits Fire Truck at LaGuardia, Two Killed

Upon landing at LaGuardia, an Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 operating from Montréal hit a fire truck that was crossing the runway at exactly the wrong time. The two pilots of the aircraft were killed and several others were injured.

The vaunted swiss cheese model of safety that has prevented so many accidents over the years failed this time. Both the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States will be investigating to see where things went wrong. As is always the case, we expect there will be many failure points along the way that led to this tragic disaster.

Those who jump to blame the air traffic controller should take a breath. We already know that the controller cleared the truck to cross the runway when he shouldn’t have, but the truck also did not stop when the controller reversed course. Further, the truck didn’t have a transponder onboard which also could have potentially prevented this accident. To top it all off, it was a late night with conditions undoubtedly impacted by the soaking wet airfield.

United Flight Attendants Get Their Second Tentative Agreement

The Week of United_TM continues with more good news for the airline as it has now reached a new tentative agreement on a contract with its flight attendants.

The flight attendant negotiations have been lengthy and at times contentious. The previous tentative agreement reached last year was resoundingly rejected, but this agreement seems to address the biggest pain points from the last agreement, including pay for long scheduled connections, restrictions on redeyes, and hazard pay for all flights touching Newark.

The union’s negotiating committee takes this to leadership on April 1 when they will have to convince them that this is not, in fact, a joke. If they approve, it will head to the membership on April 3 with voting taking place between April 23 and May 12.

Say Hello to Montreal’s Newest Metropolitan Airport

Since the whole Mirabel experiment was abandoned, Montréal has seen air service almost entirely consolidated at its Trudeau (formerly Dorval) airport. But get ready, because there’s a new sheriff in town. The long-awaited, rebranded Saint-Hubert Airport on the east side of the St Lawrence River is now Montréal Metropolitan, and it will have its first commercial flights from Porter on June 15.

Porter is not starting small. In that first week, it will begin flying from the airport to Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, Moncton, Québec City, St John’s, Toronto/City, Toronto/Pearson, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. This will instantly make Porter’s operation at Metropolitan bigger than the one at Trudeau, though whether that makes it a profitable venture is far less certain.

Porter is trying to recreate the convenience of Toronto’s City airport… just in a different city with an airport that’s further away from downtown. But the small terminal will be attractive, especially to those who live closer to that area, and it should be a very nice passenger experience.

• Air Belgium retired its final A330-200 (P2F).
• American continues to think about catching up to its competitors.
• Boeing‘s B787s have put on some weight.
• Delta is telling Congress they can suck it up until they fix their mess.
• Finnair was able to scrounge up an order with options for up to 46 E195-E2s that United overlooked.
• Hopscotch Air will partner with Euroairlines to get started as it aims for Best New Partnership at next year’s Cranky Network Awards.
• IAG is losing interest in tapping TAP.
• JetBlue pilots do not see Blue Sky as they sue over the United partnership.
• Porter is making award redemptions more costly.
• SAS joins the cool kids now that it has its first aircraft with Starlink flying.
• TAP is feeling blue as it deals with a lawsuit from Azul.
• United will fly Chicago – Keflavik through winter so that Chicagoans can warm up.
• United has decided to tell people which rows are for Relaxing on its airplanes
• Virgin Atlantic spiffed up its Clubhouse at Heathrow.
• Wizz is toying with the idea of installing wifi.

My mom gave the same advice my whole life. I spent decades thinking she didn’t understand my situation.

She understood my situation.

United rolled out a lot of hard product changes this week. We had the chance to walk through the new premium-heavy B787-9 (the so-called Elevated interior) which goes into service in less than a month. We were told about the new Coastliner A321neo which will become the transcon airplane of choice. And yes, there was more detail about the A321XLR configuration, including the new flat beds that we could sit in. We were told about the new Relax Row (Air New Zealand’s Skycouch), and there were a bunch of soft product changes as well.

Overall, it shows an airline that is making serious, firm, expensive investments, and it’s nothing short of impressive to watch. But in the corner of the hangar, in the shadow of that B787-9, sat a shiny CRJ200 — I didn’t even know they could be polished up enough to look shiny anymore — that to me held the most interesting change of all. Say hello to the CRJ450.

Does it just look like a CRJ200? That’s because it is. And in fact, this doesn’t require a new type certificate or anything like that. The CRJ450 is a marketing name for what is ultimately a vastly improved product that will breathe life into this airframe.

Instead of 50 regular coach seats, these SkyWest-operated airplanes will now have seven First Class seats, 16 Economy Plus, and 18 regular Economy seats onboard. For those who aren’t great at math, this means there will now be only 41 seats onboard the airplane. If you’ve ever seen the CRJ550 which is a CRJ700 with 50 seats onboard, then you’ll get the idea.

United has also said it is growing its CRJ550 fleet, but the world is running out of CRJ700s that can be converted. With a still substantial fleet of CRJ200s flying around, it had to make some decisions on what to do with those. United has seen what a true dual-class operation can do for revenues, and this math works. I spoke with someone at United who said he would have laughed this off a few years ago, but seeing what revenues do when there’s a true dual-class airplane over the last few years, he is now a true believer.

So what is it like on the inside? Well, take a look at this sweet ride.

It’s a big improvement from the old interiors, but the way this has been designed is pretty slick in several ways. Up at the front left of that photo above, you’ll see a cabinet. Here is the full view:

There are seven compartments, one for each First Class seat to store a full-size rollerbag. It’s not shown here, but the cabinet is pretty deep, so you can push your bag back and have room for coats or small items as well. Then up top, the closed cabinet you see is also available for extra items if needed. This allowed United to remove the overhead bins entirely in First Class, making for a much different feel than the usual CRJ200 cramped cabin. (The bigger CRJ700/900/1000s have lower floors, so they don’t feel nearly as cramped.)

In the back, there is a near 50-50 split between Economy Plus and regular coach seating. But with only 34 total seats back there, all of a sudden there is room for most rollerbags to be stored sideways in the bins.

Sure, you still have to hunch over to look out the window, but overall it is a much better experience for everyone onboard. This doesn’t even take into account the fact that United will install Starlink on all these airplanes.

I think we can agree the experience looks great, but it’s what this enables that really makes me interested in this plan. The CRJ450 will fly from the Denver and Chicago hubs. (I was told eventually it may very well fly to Houston too in some form.) But the idea here is to connect small and mid-size cities to United’s big domestic hubs, so people can connect beyond.

I dove into Cirium data and found that from Denver and Chicago, this coming July has 84 routes scheduled on the CRJ200. Now, 50 of these markets are only on the CRJ200 for all flights, but that means 34 of them have mixed flying. Here are those markets:

^{Data via Cirium, Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper® – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.}

This is a really bad experience for the local customer who gets very different offerings on different flights. This will now go away completely with the CRJ450.

Think of this in another way, in a competitive sense. There are 79 cities that are scheduled to receive CRJ200 service in July 2026, and 44 of those also have service from American, Delta, or Alaska on dual-class airplanes. United is less competitive in those markets, and now that issue will go away.

I would argue that even in the other cities without competition, this becomes quite attractive. Of course, many of the cities that get CRJ200 service today are markets that are funded by Essential Air Service subsidy. Offering a dual-class airplane in those bids will undoubtedly give SkyWest an even greater leg up than it already has in winning those bids.

SVP Global Network and Alliances Patrick Quayle pointed out on stage at media day that United serves more cities than any other airline on earth — he even challenged me from the stage to look it up. Sure enough, the airline has 393 airports on the route map in 2026, 24 more than second-place Air France-KLM. (I took the definition of “airline” generously and included whole airline groups.) I would imagine that this might help up that count even further with such an attractive offering to EAS communities.

The cherry on top of all this is that you know a ton of these flights don’t even get over the 82 percent seat factor required to make the loss of 9 seats onboard even matter. That’s especially true in EAS markets where passenger loads tend to be lower.

I can’t see loads by flight, but looking at all of 2025, United flew the CRJ200 in 94 markets (excluding random one-offs). Of those, 59 markets had a lower than 82 percent load overall. The CRJ200 had a systemwide 75 percent seat factor. Again, that’s not flight-specific, but it shows there is slack there in many cases.

In the end, this is a creative move that just improves United’s relevance and competitivness in small to mid-size markets. Now it needs to figure out what to do with the remaining ERJ-145s, the only single-class airplanes left in United’s future fleet. Today, those fly out of Houston and Washington/Dulles, but they are too narrow to do the same conversion. United will once again have to get creative, but that really doesn’t seem like an issue for the airline.

This is just one small piece of what United announced this week, but Jon and I get into so much more, including higher-level discussion, on this week’s episode of The Air Show which will be up later Thursday afternoon.

• Listen on Spotify
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• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

TAR is not exactly considered to be a beacon of operational excellence. I did have a backup plan — there was a later nonstop from La Paz to Tijuana on Volaris — but I wanted some reassurance. Looking around the morning of my flight on Airfleets and other sites, it seemed like there may be only two active airplanes in the fleet, but neither one of these was going to get to La Paz in time for my flight, yet it still showed on time. I was stumped, so I figured I’d just show up and see what might happen.

I had checked in online, and I got to the airport about an hour early which was more than enough.

The ticketing area was completely empty save for a couple of TAR agents. Other airlines didn’t have flights until later.

There was nobody around in the security line either, so it was easy to get into the gate area. And then I sat in the nearly-abandoned terminal. It was just a handful of us and a cockroach who was slowly crawling around.

I had a couple hours to connect in Mazatlán to Volaris so there was some buffer, and TAR inexplicably had another flight to Mazatlán scheduled one hour later. That one I could see through flight tracking, and it looked on time. So I was feeling pretty good that I’d get there eventually, if not when I expected.

Then, out of nowhere, a TAR aircraft landed.

What the heck? Well, funny story, this airplane — XA-AFH — is an old Continental Express aircraft that TAR had been flying for Mexicana when that airline first started. That agreement ended, and the fleet sites showed it having been stored. (I submitted an update to Airfleets after, and it now shows as active there.)

It turns out, this airplane doesn’t seem to show up on the flight tracking sites like Flightradar 24 at all. That was… weird. Why do some of their airplanes show up but this one doesn’t? I don’t have an answer. But hey, at least we were going to be on time.

They called for boarding and told everyone to line up in a single-file line. Then they called two of us to the podium, presumably since we had both done web check-in. They gave us paper boarding passes despite having done web check-in, just like Mexicana had, and we got back in line.

As we walked to the airplane, they kept running up an engine out there and then pulling it back down, and I’m not sure why. But I am no aircraft mechanic, so… let’s board this thing. We were led in a long line — ok, not that long since it was pretty empty — and we boarded by stairs.

TAR 703
January 22, 2026

From La Paz
➤ Scheduled Departure: 1050a
➤ Actual Departure: 1038a
➤ From Gate: 2
➤ Wheels Up: 1047a
➤ From Runway: 36

To Mazatlán
➤ Wheels Down: 1133a
➤ On Runway: 27
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 1150a
➤ Actual Arrival: 1136a
➤ At Gate: 10

Aircraft
➤ Type: Embraer 145LR
➤ Delivered: September 10, 1998 to Continental Express
➤ Registered: XA-AFH, msn 78
➤ Livery: White with Red Tail

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 14C
➤ Load: 19/50
➤ Flight Time: 46m

This airplane looked old on the inside, but it also looked tired and beaten up. Most concerning, I noticed the exit door looked like it had seen better days.

It was not full at all, so I walked back and took my seat with nobody next to me or across the aisle.

All loaded up, there was no reason to wait, so we pushed back early and were in the air before our scheduled departure.

We had a nice view of the region upon takeoff before looping all the way around toward the west, south, and eventually coming out of the turn heading east past the southern tip of Baja. I couldn’t see much as we were in the clouds and rain for a short time. We soon got out and over the water where things cleared out.

One of the two male flight attendants came back and served us drinks, but I didn’t want any water or juice. Done with his job, he took a seat in the exit row and pulled out a book. It took about 10 seconds before he was, at best, resting his eyes. Who knew they had crew rest on such a short flight?

The seatbelt sign never came off, but we weren’t exactly going very far on this trip anyway so I didn’t need to get up anyway. There was rather strangely an inflight magazine on this trip.

I don’t know what the point of this magazine is but it can’t be for TAR passengers. After all, the big feature was on the Yucatán and TAR flies nowhere near there.

Soon, the mainland came into view. The pilots announced our descent, and that woke the flight attendant up from his brief catnap. Maybe that’s why they announce the descent…. He sprung into action and collected trash.

It was a long, slow descent, but we had some really nice views of the lush Mazatlán area and all the farms surrounding it. We touched down early and had a quick taxi back to the terminal.

This was an adventure that I probably don’t need to repeat. But I suppose it’s hard to complain when your 45 minute flight operates on time and you live to tell the tale.

It didn’t help that my first three trips in the new year would gain no benefit from Alaska status. The first, as you all know, was my adventures in Mexico where Alaska has no partner. The second was a day trip to Phoenix. There was no way I was going to drive up to LAX to fly American just on the off chance I’d get an upgrade for an hour. I went with Southwest. And the third involved a speaking engagement in Vegas. Alaska no longer even flies there from LAX, so it was either take one of only three daily, poorly-timed flights on American or… fly Southwest. I did the latter, and you’ll hear about that soon.

So things weren’t off to a great start, but we have a Hawaiian trip planned for this summer, and I was excited to get my benefits while also putting my credit card companion certificate to use. This too did not go well.

When you use the companion certificate, you have to book online, and you are required to only book two people in a reservation. I, as you know, have a family of four. There is no way to put that in a single booking, so I’d have to do two separate ones. The problem, of course, is that elite benefits only apply to companions in the same reservation as yourself. That’s frustrating since I didn’t want to book this separately.

Now, we aren’t talking big benefits here. As a Silver, I get a free checked bag (which I get from the credit card anyway), and free preferred seating. I am only entitled to an upgrade to “Premium” (extra legroom) or First Class with one companion anyway, so I didn’t expect that to happen. I was downright determined to get free preferred seating, because… well, because, damnit. That’s the only benefit that would matter.

I started by using Alaska’s chat function to ask if they could give free preferred seating to my other companions since it was Alaska that was forcing me to book in separate reservations. The agent told me that I could only upgrade one companion with my benefits anyway.

Frustrated with her lack of understanding what I was trying to do, I uploaded this very screenshot from the Alaska website.

She said that it was only one companion, but I could try calling reservations. Confused, I did just that.

Shockingly, the reservations agent said the exact same thing. She consulted her manual and said that upgrades were for only one companion. I tried to explain to her that preferred seats aren’t an upgrade, and the website clearly states it’s for the entire party. She would not budge. Since she was telling me the website was wrong, I asked her how this could get fixed. She said I could file a report, whatever that means. I hung up exceedingly frustrated that I had wasted time on this. It’s not like preferred seating is even all that great of a benefit.

I wasn’t planning on doing this, but I was so jaded by this experience that I decided to burn last year’s and this year’s companion pass on this trip, thinking I might not want to bother keeping the credit card. Then, in a fit of confusion, I booked myself in the preferred seats and paid for the other two not in my reservation to sit there. I should have just put us all in the regular seats, but I was stupidly determined to squeeze ANY benefit out of this silly elite status.

Not satisifed at all once I calmed down, I emailed the communications team at Alaska to ask for clarification on the policy. Would I not have been entitled to preferred seating for the whole family even in a single reservation as these two reservations agents suggested? It took more than one person and some time to get me an answer, but in the end, I was right. Of course, this wouldn’t have helped me get the other two free preferred seating since they were on separate reservations, but I was told that reservations agents are empowered to make exceptions in circumstances like that. I apparently found the two reservations agents who couldn’t even understand the policy in the first place. Alaska did refund the extra preferred charge which I appreciated, but it brings up the bigger question….

In the end, why do I even care? Upgrades on a trip with the family aren’t happening since that only works with one companion. The checked bag is free with the credit card — something that frustratingly also won’t apply to the other two people when I have to book separately anyway — and so that leaves me with preferred seating and priority boarding on a family trip? Who cares?

I have thought about trying to extend my elite status by matching to another airline to see if I’d feel the same way with others. If I have it, might as well try it. The obvious option is Southwest, but their policy is to do a challenge that requires booking AND traveling six one ways within a 120 day window. Having already booked my first two trips on Southwest, those would not have been eligible. But really, that’s fine. I would rather get off this roller coaster ride.

I give up. I will let this play out this year, but then I’m back out of the game. It’s just never worth it for a lowly entry-level status-holder to even bother.

Spirit Files Bankruptcy Plan

Spirit filed its restructuring and reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, and it’s highlight is a further effort to reduce the size of its fleet. When Spirit filed for this bankruptcy last year, it had 214 aircraft in its fleet. It expects to be down to as few as 76 planes by Q3 to cement its cost savings. While most industry insiders believe the savings will come from selling the planes that were owned, rejecting leases on others, and not having to deal with maintenance or upkeep, a Spirit insider told Cranky the real savings will come in the form of needing less yellow paint.

The carrier says it expects to start adding planes back to its fleet between 2027 and 2030 which is a comically long window of time, with the caveat it’ll be done “commensurate with profitable growth opportunties.” The next time Spirit finds a profitable growth opportunity will be the first in a very long time.

It says its debt and lease obligations will be down to just $2 billion after the reorg, down from a whopping $7.2 billion when it initiated this bankruptcy process.

Who’s Got the Power? Not Denver

Denver International Airport located in Denver near Denver about halfway between Denver and Nebraska has had a bad go of it for more than a year with its trains breaking down on a semi-regular basis leaving passengers backed to the TSA checkpoints and beyond. The airport had a new one this week — the power went out Wednesday at about 9:20 a.m. MT paralyzing the airport’s entire operation.

Supposedly the outage was caused by a “piece of equipment shutting off” at a nearby Xcel Energy substation, but we’ve received reports that Blucifer, the Blue Demon horse living on the airport grounds, was seen near the main electric input at the time of the outage.

Power remained out for just short of two hours, coming back on around 11am. A ground stop was issued at 9:54am that stayed in effect until 11:30am, causing cascading delays and cancellations all day. Luckily for some AAirlines, passengers barely noticed the power outage, having come to the airport expecting a delay or cancellation.

Delta Makes its Baggage Guarantee Harder to Redeem

Delta’s enhancement team is back at it again, enhancing its 20-minute bag guarantee to require submission from passengers no more than two hours after their flight arrives. Before this change, passengers had 72 hours to file a claim, but its now been shrunk to two.

It’s one of those things where Delta will probably save a little bit on customers who forget to file amongst the chaos that is baggage claim, but how is this worth it? The payout is 2,500 SkyMiles, and our Cranky Valuation Machine ™ prices 2,500 SkyMiles at approximately 14 cents. This was a deal with passengers that the airline values our time — at least a little bit — and it made this token gesture when it didn’t live up to its own expectations.

Unlike a Medallion devaluation or price increase, this change is unlikely to result in public uproar. Most travelers probably don’t even know this exists, and those that do can’t exactly be getting rich off 20-minute bag guarantee arbitrage opportunities. It seems as if the bean counters on Virginia Ave bean counted a little too hard on this one. Keep climbing, friends.

Frontier Adds Four New Frontiers

Frontier Airlines will launch four new routes in May and June, in what feels like its first route announcement that didn’t involve Atlanta in several months.

Beginning May 5, it will operate 1x daily between Dallas/DFW and Newark, proving that airlines will try literally anything to get customers to go to Newark. On May 21, it’s two more for Frontier, including 4x weekly DFW-Orange County and 1x daily Fort Lauderdale – Washington/Dulles. Lastly on June 11, it will start 4x weekly service between Las Vegas and Nashville.

These are all somewhat crowded routes, with AA, Spirit, and United flying DFW-EWR; Southwest and Spirit on BNA-LAS; AA flying DFW-SNA; and UA running FLL-IAD.

Lufthansa Dives Into the Basic Premium Class Pool

Lufthansa is finally joining the Basic Business club with the new fare class debuting across each Lufthansa Group carrier: Austrian, Brussels, Discover, Lufthansa, and SWISS. It’s not just business class getting basicfied as it will enhance its offerings with Basic Premium Economy fares as well. Just to be clear, it’s not calling them basic, it’s calling them light. Because light fares test better than Basic. But we know.

What’s included? One checked bag (down from two), a charge to select your seat prior to check-in, increased change fees, a cone of shame to wear around your neck during boarding, and a DB rail pass on trains guaranteed to be late (spoiler alert: that’s all of them.)

To begin, the basic fares in premium cabins are available on flights to and from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America. Excluded are flights to North America, China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore… for now.

• American‘s app will now give more detail into delays and cancellations, and it should work well seeing as it’s had a lot to work with during testing. The airline is currently workshopping a new slogan: “American, you’ll still be late, but you’ll have a little more information.”
• Air Tahiti Nui is weighing A350s and A321XLRs. Must take a big scale.
• Andes Líneas Aérenas is seeking permission to fly World Cup charter flights to the United States.
• Breeze will be blowing into Costa Rica.
• BA is beefing up its winter schedule for pale Brits who want to go literally anywhere else in winter.
• Cathay Group posted a $1.8 billion profit for the full year 2025.
• Congo Airways likely has some leadership changes coming.
• Ethiopian will resume non-stop service to Atlanta on May 21 after putting in a temporary suspension beginning in February.
• Finnair is suspending flights to Doha (through March 29) and Dubai (through July 2).
• Gol really scored with its new Rio de Janeiro/GIG and Orlando service that will operate 4x weekly.
• LATAM would like to grow.
• Ryanair opened a fancy new maintenance hangar in Madrid.
• SWISS is offering a bonus to any full-time FAs that voluntarily leave the airline by the end of this summer.
• t’way Air s’cured $17 million in shareholder backing.
• United unveiled the new B737-8 MAX to be based in Guam. The aircraft was seen buying sunscreen and a panama hat to prepare for the move.
• Wizz Air is adding a 4th airplane to its Venice base.

I set my Wi-Fi password to 2444666668888888 so that when guests ask me for the password I can tell them it’s just ‘12345678’

What it comes down to is this… demand is through the roof. Every single airline that took the stage was beaming that the numbers are much better than expected. Just look at some examples:

• Delta had 8 of its 10 highest sales days in Q1
• American had 8 of its 10 highest sales weeks in Q1
• United’s first 10 weeks of 2026 were also its 10 highest sales weeks

This isn’t just at the top of the chain either. JetBlue raised its revenue guidance for Q1 from being flat to up 4 percent all the way up to now being up 5 to 7 percent. Frontier expected stage length-adjusted unit revenue to be up 10 percent. It’s now going to be up in the mid-teens.

Though Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Delta is in good shape because it serves the high-end traveler who is less impacted by economic pressure — it’s that K-shaped economy which apparently doesn’t bother him — Southwest CEO Bob Jordan confirmed that this trend isn’t just limited to a specific part of the business.

That strength is in all geographies. It’s across all fare structures, it’s across business, it’s leisure, and as far as we have visibility, that demand strength is across all forward months

Andrew Watterson, COO of Southwest, dropped this stunning number. If Southwest didn’t receive another dollar of corporate bookings after last Friday, March would still be its biggest corporate month ever. That’s only halfway through the month!

It’s the 1920s all over again. Times are good, what could possibly go wrong?

Undoubtedly the airlines are all preparing for what could happen, but I often look to United to tell the real story here. As was the case during COVID, United has generally been more conservative (and right) in where it thinks the business could go. Of course it hopes for the best, but as the saying goes, it plans for the worst.

So, when United CEO Scott Kirby took to the stage toward the end of the day, I was listening closely. Is he concerned that oil is running up toward $100 a barrel so quickly? It’s even more pronounced for the airlines since jet fuel itself has spiked even more.

As usual, Scott turned to numbers to help explain his airline’s view of the world.

Yes, higher oil isn’t ideal, but United — and it seems much of the industry — is on its way to being able to recoup that extra cost thanks to strong demand. In other words, fares are going up, and people are still buying tickets.

At United, Scott said the oil price run-up has added about $4.6 billion in cost. This number can change if prices fluctuate, but for United to cover that, it needs to increase its unit revenue by 8.5 points. That’s a hefty increase. But Scott points to more numbers to show that it is happening. In the last week before he spoke, booked yields are up 15 to 20 percent. Fares are climbing very quickly to offset the cost increase. Now, that doesn’t mean it gets to an 8.5 point increase in the end once all is said and done, but it is a very realistic possibility.

The way Scott sees it, this is just delayed inflation finally reaching airfare, and that’s why it’s being accepted by the public. He points out that while inflation in the US was up by about 25 percent from 2019 to 2025, fares were down 2 percent. So there is room for airfare to catch up without pushing people away in droves as would normally be the case.

Still, Scott says United is being conservative, and it has already cut capacity by about one percent in May and June. This is off-peak flying that performs the weakest, but by cutting supply, it can help bolster fares. Other airlines are wavering on making cuts until there’s more data on what’s happening. Even United doesn’t think it needs to do this now, but it wants to be conservative in case things do turn worse. As United sees it, it’s worth the minor loss of revenue on those flights if things don’t get much worse in order to prevent a bigger loss if things go in the opposite direction.

Fortunes, of course, change dramatically if oil continues to shoot up and prices stay high for a long time. This looks increasingly likely as the war drags on. But Scott says that they’ve even run up scenarios where oil hits $175 a barrel, and United can still grow its profit margins. It’s far from a guarantee, but the idea that this is even a possibility shows how much the industry has structurally changed.

I suppose I should narrow that to say that “part” of the industry has changed. You still have the ultra low-cost operators trying to find a strategy that works. Frontier will lose money in Q1 and it will be at the lower end of its previous guidance even with the strong revenue guidance. American is losing money in Q1 as well as it continues to try to become like Delta and United despite being well behind. It isn’t cutting capacity, which may seem like an odd choice. I guess it’s easy to play to the upside with all the euphoria that’s sweeping the industry right now.

There is a lot of uncertainty right now, but somehow the airlines aren’t feeling it nearly as much as they have in previous times of crisis. It’s all sunshine and rainbows… until it’s not. It’s just a matter of time.

Want to hear more about the JP Morgan conference? Brian, Jon, and I spent this week’s episode talking about the big picture but also some other bits and pieces which caught our eyes. This should be live before this post goes out, but if it’s not, check again later today.

• Listen on Spotify
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• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

I will gladly admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Los Cabos. Cabo San Lucas itself is a small town that has been built up mostly to serve the tourist market. Further east, San José del Cabo has more of a sense of place with locals, but it’s also not where most tourists spend their time. When this area developed into a tourism hub just a two hour flight from Los Angeles, hotels were built along the ocean shores, usually nowhere near town at all. The “Corridor” is exactly that. Between the two towns, there isn’t much other than resorts catering primarily to foreigners, and most of them don’t even have swimmable beaches.

Even in the towns, Americans never need to speak a word of Spanish or even exchange their dollars into pesos. It might as well be the US. If I’m going to another country, I don’t want a carbon copy of what I already live every day.

This isn’t to say that the Park Hyatt wasn’t spectacular. It absolutely was. And I can imagine a lot of travelers falling in love with the place.

My wife flew down for this part of the trip to meet me, and she really liked what she saw. We spent most of the days by the pool watching what looked like a literal playground for whales. We took a class in the kitchen making tortillas out of masa. And I have to say I looked amazing wearing that hat around that they provided in the room.

This is the luxury version of visiting another country, but it certainly sanitizes the experience. For some, this is the right balance. For me, I was ready to move on.

My wife hopped on a plane back home, but I got in a bus for the three-hour drive up to La Paz. La Paz sits on the Sea of Cortés, but it is north-facing in a protected bay with several islands ringing the area.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that there was an actual sense of place in La Paz. This was a city, a city where people worked and lived. It’s also a city where I could wander freely and not feel any safety concerns.

I stayed at a one La Paz, the lowest rung on the food chain of the Fiesta Americana brand. It promises (and delivers) spartan but clean accommodations with free breakfast and a good price. I got a travel agent rate of $65, and I was happy enough.

After wandering from the bus depot to the hotel and dropping my bags, I immediately walked back toward the water, because… isn’t that what you do? And La Paz has a sizable and bustling malecón that stretches all along the bay.

What’s more, they have created several art installations ranging from old statues…

… to more modern endeavors.

There were a couple of piers, one for transport and another ostensibly for fishing though I saw nobody actually doing that. Along that main street, there were several restaurants and hotels. Some were very touristy and completely unappealing while others seemed to hold a story from the past that I would have liked to learn.

When it was time for dinner, I followed the advice of the Park Hyatt. Ok, so it wasn’t the hotel itself, but it was the advice of two of the bellmen who suggested I get some lobster at Bismarckcito. This looked pretty touristy in its own right, but I had a solid lobster fettucine, and really, can you go wrong with a view like this? (If you read TripAdvisor, apparently you can.)

After, I strolled the streets and did a little shopping to bring something back to the kids. Then, I found something so rare, most of you have probably never even heard of it…

I didn’t actually go into Sears at all, but I did like going into some of the local shops and puttering around town with nothing pushing me in any particular direction. People were out and enjoying themselves.

It is impossible to compare La Paz to Cabo San Lucas since they couldn’t be more different. La Paz and San José share more similarities, but San José is still much more tourism-focused while La Paz is certainly not.

In Los Cabos, it’s fun to go and sit on the beach, even if many aren’t swimmable due to strong current. I don’t ever think about wanting to go back there. In La Paz, I’d like to go back and explore a lot more. This visit was just an introductory taste. I didn’t get to any of the islands or explore the areas outside of town. It looks like there is a lot to see, and with Alaska flying there now, it is probably worth a return visit.

Specifically today, I’m talking about the Origin & Destination Survey which has historically taken a 10 percent sample of all domestic tickets (and some international which is highly restricted, so I never use it in posts) and then provided the fare and passenger detail quarterly. Tools like those offered by Cirium then gross up the data and clean it to present a respectable estimate of the total market. (If you’re doing it from the raw data, be very careful how you use it.) I use this data all the time, though you may have heard me refer to it as DB1B.

As of July 2025, DB1B has become DB1C, and the data is much better. You can read the lengthy and exhausting file in the federal register if you’d like. Cirium also has a summary.

So, let’s go through some of the most important changes.

Sample Size Grows from 10 to 40 Percent

The biggest change is that we are no longer going to have to rely on a small 10 percent sample. Airlines now have to submit 40 percent of tickets to the feds which will make for more accurate reporting, especially in small markets where there just isn’t much data to be filed.

Frequency Goes From Quarterly to Monthly

As far as I’m concerned, the best change is that we will no longer be beholden to quarterly releases. The data will now flow monthly. This is huge since it has required some awfully uncomfortable groupings in the past. Does it make sense that if I want to look at June, I also need to look at April and May? Or if I want to see July, why do I also need August? Now we will be able to better isolate performance by actual seasons.

This also means data will flow more freely. Normally, we have to wait about 80 days beyond the end of a quarter for that data to be released. Now the target has been reduced to 75 days, and it’ll be every month. So July data will show up by mid-October instead of mid-December. DOT hopes to reduce that turnaround time even more. Oh, and for T100 traffic data (no fares), the wait will drop from six months to three months.

Advance Purchase Data

Maybe the most exciting change is the inclusion of how far in advance each ticket was purchased. This isn’t an exact number, but it will be lumped into three buckets: within three weeks of travel, three weeks to 90 days, and beyond 90 days. Obviously more granular would be useful, but getting a sense of when people booked will be a very welcome addition.

No More Making Up Taxes

It used to be that the fare had to be provided, but taxes were not in there. Some models would estimates taxes. Now, the taxes are included so there’s no estimation required.

Reporting Carrier Clarity

In the old system, the airline that “lifted” the first coupon on the ticket at time of travel would be the reporting carrier. This led to some confusion and probably bad data. For example, if United issued a ticket where the first flight was on JetBlue, JetBlue would have reported previously but it wouldn’t surprise me if it got reported twice or incorrectly. Now, the airline that issues the ticket has to report it regardless of the first airline, and that makes it very clear who does what.

The only place where it gets iffy is when a foreign airline that doesn’t report issues the ticket with travel partly on a US carrier. In that case, the first US airline still has to report.

All Airlines Reporting

Before this change, smaller commuters — those with aircraft under 60 seats only — didn’t need to report at all. This didn’t impact regional partners of big airlines, but it did exempt little guys. Now they all have to report.

There are a few other minor changes, but as you can see, this is going to be a big upgrade for the data. I’m writing about it now, because Cirium first loaded the data into its tool last week. I can finally see July 2025 all the way through October 2025 data. There are going to be some issues with year-over-year comparisons for a bit, but it’s already exciting to see this stuff.

You didn’t think I’d leave you without any data at all, did you? Here’s a look at some fare data which shows that Southwest really took a big hit after peak summer on its short-haul fares in the LA area. Others did too, but look at how October saw fares creep up.

Average Fare for Trips Under 500 Miles Departing the LA Basin by Month

^{Data via Cirium}

Just some random food for thought. Stay tuned for more.

For O’Hare, there are multiple storylines here. And in fact, this seems like a good time to introduce the long-requested name for our favorite new soap opera:

This week on Beyond ORD Gates, Southwest decided it just absolutely was not worth continuing to compete. But then again, it never really found a niche that made sense at O’Hare anyway.

Southwest Monthly Departures From Chicago/O’Hare

^{Data via Cirium}

When Southwest first started in the market, the focus was on connecting O’Hare to its biggest hubs in blue. It then grew into hybrid markets like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Orlando which are both hubs and major leisure destinations. Pure leisure was icing on the cake.

By early 2024, Southwest had given up on this plan. It nearly eliminated pure leisure flying and it scaled back its flying everywhere else to just a little over half where it was.

This last winter, we saw another shift. Yes, flights were cut again, but leisure returned. The pure hubs all but disappeared. For spring, Southwest tried to reintroduce more leisure, but it seems clear the airline just decided it wasn’t worth it any longer. With United and American ramping up capacity dramatically at O’Hare, that must have been the final straw. Southwest will now donate its two dozen daily operations to the pot as the FAA tries to reduce flying at O’Hare this summer.

Meanwhile, at Dulles, it’s a different story. Southwest has served that airport since 2006, and it opened it like it did just about any other new station back in the day, by connecting it with regular flights to the nearest hubs.

Southwest Monthly Departures From Washington/Dulles

^{Data via Cirium}

Florida survived until 2010 when Denver took over as the second connecting point at the airport beyond Midway. By 2016, even Midway was gone, replaced by Atlanta as Florida again returned. Then Midway came back and Atlanta was gone. It never really worked.

For the last two years, Dulles has been a key point in the strategy to serve flights that are beyond the perimeter from nearby Washington/National. But that has meant only flights to Phoenix and Denver. (Remember, Southwest has a beyond-perimeter slot exemption to serve Las Vegas from National already.)

This is a much smaller operation than what was at O’Hare, and it’s probably not a big deal to see it finally go away. But it is indicative of this idea that primary airports in markets where Southwest has a big hub at the secondary airport won’t really work.

Yes, Washington/National still exists in the shadow of Baltimore, but that is a special case. Slots make airlines do crazy things, but also… it’s a great airport to serve if you want to get in good with the politicians. It’s no surprise to see this remain important in the network.

Other than that, the closest we have to this dynamic is in the LA Basin and the San Francisco Bay Area. I don’t count Fort Lauderdale and Miami since neither are large operations any longer. The same goes for Boston vs Manchester/Providence and Islip vs LaGuardia. That’s not the same thing.

But even in LA and SF, it’s a different kind of story. In full year 2025, BWI had 81 percent of all Southwest departures from the region. (If you’re wondering, National had 17 percent and Dulles was a rounding error.) In Chicago, Midway had 94 percent of departures. These are massive hub operations for the airline with around 200 daily departures on average (a little less at Midway).

In the LA Basin, LAX is actually the largest station with 29 percent of departures, but it’s all fairly even followed by Burbank at 22 percent, Long Beach and Orange County hovering around 18 percent, and Ontario at 14 percent. LA also has less than 70 daily departures. The Bay Area is similar with Oakland at 47 percent, San Jose at 41 percent, and the balance at San Francisco.

In these markets, especially LA, it’s about providing good, useful service across the entire region. There isn’t that massive draw to take away from from the primary airport in the same way as there is in DC, Chicago, and yes, Houston.

So another Southwest experiment ends as the airline continues to refocus on markets that work. It’s not a surprise to see these two on the outs. The only real surprise is that Southwest was willing to make the right move and walk away.

How the Iran War Could Affect Your Summer Airfare: What You Need to Know and When to Book – Investopedia

This isn’t the only outlet asking me what will happen to fares now that we are in a war with Iran with no end in sight. Of course, I don’t know the answer to that, but I can sure help explain how the airlines will think about it. If they lower capacity, fares will rise. They might be waiting to see if they can glean any more insight into where this is whole mess is going first.

Skiplagging Flights Is Not A Travel Hack – It’s Theft – Forbes

Amen. The airlines set the rules about how you can use their product, and because of that, you should obey them. Skiplagging –better known as hidden-city ticketing — is not allowed.

Jon is back on the pod this week, and he led us through the stormy waters surrounding the invasion of Iran. What exactly does this mean? What will be the impact? Talk it through with us.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts
• Listen on Amazon
• Listen on Pocket Casts

Southwest to End IAD and ORD Service

Plot twist: We’ve got an airline actually ending service to Chicago/ORD, bucking the current trends.

Southwest Airlines revealed to employees this morning that it would be ending service at two airports: Chicago/O’Hare and Washington/Dulles. Its exit will be completed on June 3, giving it just under three months to wrap things up. These exits are unlikely to create seismic changes in the Southwest ecosystem as it already has a much larger presence at other airports in both regions.

In Washington, Southwest has had a limited schedule out of IAD for more than a decade, with its main east coast hub home of intentional connecting opportunities up the BW parkway at Baltimore/Washington International. A little closer by, Southwest flies to and from 21 destinations from Washington/National’s historic Terminal A, making it the second largest carrier at the airport behind American.

As for Chicago, the carrier has a much larger operation across town at Chicago/Midway, compared to its tiny presence at ORD. Southwest began flying to ORD post-pandemic in 2021, and reduced the size of its operation there in 2026. As of today, it’s scheduled to serve about 12 destinations from the airport with one — Panama City (FL) — scheduled to begin next month.

Despite the move out of ORD not yet having been formally filed, both American and United are jockeying for position. American CEO Robert Isom told Southwest officials it would be willing to pay for movers to help get Southwest out of the airport and freeing up the gates as soon as possible. Upon hearing this, United CEO Scott Kirby one-upped his colleague and rival, offering to come down to the airport and help with the move himself. Then they both realized Southwest was in Terminal 5 and decided they couldn’t care less.

Spirit to Recall Pilots

Spirit Airlines is recalling many of the pilots it placed on furlough as attrition in the cockpit has struck the carrier with many of its pilots opting for greener not-as-yellow pastures where they’re more likely to receive a stable paycheck.

As you might call on a previous episode of As the Spirit Turns, part of its strategy to shrink costs as it went through not one, but two bankruptcies was to put hundreds of pilots on unpaid leave as it shrunk its operation and didn’t need them. But now the tables have turned, as Spirit needs to backfill the flight deck. The carrier sent notices to about 500 pilots who have been out of work between six and 20 months to come back to work.

As part of a welcome package for coming back, pilots will receive a six-pack of BuzzBallz (only to be consumed off-duty) and a BOGO for any Fort Lauderdale area Howard Johnson.

Southwest Restricts Jumpseat Access

Southwest seems to be taking its new assigned seating policy further than we originally thought, as the carrier is now restricting jumpseat access to flight crew — FAs and pilots — leaving other non-rev fliers forced to take a seat in the cabin or wait for the next flight.

This change came as a request from TWU 556 Union, Southwest’s FA union which sought to keep jumpseats for pilots and flight attendants. The union said in a statement that the change enhances safety and ensures those occupying the jumpseat have an understanding of the operational demands and work taking place in the galley. When hearing that, a select group of Southwest pilots laughed and said “yeah, we have no idea what they do back there, but whatever makes it easier for us to get home works just fine…”

Toronto to Take Worldwide Lead in Preclearance Facilities per Capita

One preclearance facility is good, but two are better. More than a decade after adding preclearance at Toronto/Pearson, the city’s main airport, the other option in the city, Toronto/City, known to some as Billy Bishop Airport added one as well.

This is great if you’re traveling on Porter back to the U.S. or on Air Canada’s limited service from the airport, but beware — it comes at a price. To pay for it, YTZ is adding a $16.56 fee on every passenger who uses it for the first year. Canadian passport holders will be permitted to opt-out of the fee if they bring a pint of fresh maple syrup to the facility.

The service will also open up the possibility of service from YTZ to U.S. destinations without a CBP clearance, specifically making both New York/LGA and Washington/DCA open to service to the airport. It’s so convenient that Air Canada will begin 4x daily YTZ-LGA service later this month. Porter will also expand its large U.S. footprint with this addition, adding flights first to Nashville and moving its Chicago/Midway service across town to ORD.

JetBlue Grows Fort Lauderdale

JetBlue Airways announced an expansion of four current routes out of its Fort Lauderdale hub, continuing its trend over the last year to put a boot to the neck of its largest FLL rival – Spirit. Cartagena, Dallas/DFW, Jacksonville, and Tampa will grow for JetBlue, starting in June, complementing the 20 destinations its added from the south Florida airport in the last year.

Cartagena will grow from 4x weekly to year-round, 1x daily flights beginning June 11, while Jacksonville will grow on June 18 to daily year-round service, upped from limited spring break-only service. Dallas/Fort Worth and Tampa will both double on June 18 from 1x to 2x daily.

• Air Baltic reduced its full-year loss 40% to $51.2 million.
• Air Canada is growing its Landline service from Toronto.
• Air New Zealand is feeling the fuel crunch.
• Asia Pacific applied for rights to serve both Hong Kong and Manila from Guam.
• Air Premia is down to just one CEO. How clever.
• Air Transat posted a Q1 loss.
• AirAsia will leave Darwin in April.
• Breeze is starting 2x weekly service between Madison and Fort Myers. It’s no Appleton – Fort Myers, but it’s close.
• Cathay Pacific is increasing its current fuel surcharge by more than double.
• Condor will wet-lease an E190 later this month, stripes and all.
• Delta will reportedly begin serving Manila from Los Angeles next summer. It’s also extending its pause of service from JFK to Tel Aviv until March 31 and won’t resume ATL-TLV service until August.
• Hawaiian is going to self-tagged bags.
• IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers IndiWent out the front door, resigning his position.
• JSX is adding 4x weekly turboprop service from Santa Monica to Napa.
• KLM took delivery of its 13th and 14th A321neos this week.
• SAS is partnering with Google to track your movement, spy on you, and listen in on your calls track bags more efficiently.
• Spirit is blaming the FAA for everything.
• Southwest will now interline with ANA, making it easier to check your bags on that HOU-DAL-AUS-NRT itinerary.
• STARLUX is leasing an additional eight A321neos.

Therapist: What bring you in today.

Patient: I have a overwhelming fear of tsunamis.

Therapist: How bad is it?

Patient: It comes in waves.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

Señor Air is undisputably the airline with the best name around, but it is also a relatively new entrant that seems to have spawned in some part out of the ashes of Calafia. This airline’s focus is on bringing people from nearby domestic destinations to the close-in airport in Cabo San Lucas. No, that’s not where you’ve probably flown. Nearly all commercial flights go to the Los Cabos (SJD) airport in San José del Cabo which is quite far from Cabo San Lucas itself. JSX is an exception, and so is Señor Air which charged me just about $200 for the privilege, including the extra cost of a seat assignment.

I was able to check-in online without any issues, but I wasn’t quite sure if this was a private jet-style situation or if I went to the terminal in Puerto Vallarta. I couldn’t find anything saying otherwise, so I went to the terminal. I didn’t need a ticket counter, but I looked for one to make sure this airline existed.

I can’t help but love that logo. It looks old-school like many of the bird logos that graced airlines back in the day, but it also kind of looks like the tilde (~) in the name as well as a manly mustache. This is good work, people.

Security was empty, and once again I was back ready to make friends in the close quarters of the PVR domestic concourse. I wasn’t interested in the lounge after my first cramped experience. Instead, I decided to just walk. There wasn’t a single airplane on the ground at the international concourse this early in the morning, and sad, sunburned travelers were only starting to trickle in for their flights home.

I stood and watched our the airplane arrive, hoping to get a good photo. But then I saw it was stopping out at a bus gate, so it wouldn’t get very close. I headed to the gate.

Fortunately, this was not a busy time of day, so it wasn’t nearly as stifling as when I last flew through. We were all the way down at gate 2, which has no jet bridge. Boarding was scheduled to begin at 10:35am.

Shockingly, someone showed up right on time and started boarding promptly. My pass was scanned, my ID was checked, and I was told to go down the stairs to bus #4. So I did. And everyone else followed me until we had 37 people onboard. It was a completely full flight.

The short ride out to the airplane ended with me taking a million pictures. I was so excited to fly this airline.

Our chariot was XA-SEN, a 25-year old Embraer 135LR. This airplane started life as an Intel corporate shuttle, so it had to be low time. And as I ascended the stairs, I was transported to an era that time forgot.

Señor Air/Cabo Flight Center 708
January 19, 2026

From Puerto Vallarta
➤ Scheduled Departure: 11a
➤ Actual Departure: 1056a
➤ From Gate: 2
➤ Wheels Up: 1103a
➤ From Runway: 22

To Cabo San Lucas (CSL)
➤ Wheels Down: 1058a
➤ On Runway: 29
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 1115a
➤ Actual Arrival: 1101a
➤ At Gate: Uh, let’s call it 1 or 2, you pick

Aircraft
➤ Type: Embraer EMB-135LR
➤ Delivered: July 24, 2001 to Intel Air Shuttle
➤ Registered: XA-SEN, msn 450
➤ Livery: Blue Tail

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 6A
➤ Load: 37/37
➤ Flight Time: 55m

The first thing I noticed about this airplane is that it had those great, old, comfy, cushy coach seats that don’t exist anymore. The second thing I noticed was that my row (6) and row 10 were gray while the rest were blue. That’s weird. It wasn’t an exit row or anything special.

I had pre-reserved seat 6A so I could have the single seat on the side and have what I hoped would be a stellar view of Cabo San Lucas on the way in. I sat down and saw the interior was a little worse for wear, but man was that seat comfortable. I didn’t realize I missed the old seats that much.

There was no pushing back on this flight since we were at a hardstand. The pilots just fired up the engines, and forward we went. The single flight attendant was young and raced to deliver her messages in Spanish and English before we left the ground. She barely made it.

I always listen to the safety briefing, but I can’t say anything usually stands out. This time, however, I was surprised to hear that there were no life vests onboard the aircraft. It was seat-bottom cushion or nothing for an airline that almost exclusively flies over water.

We were off the ground quickly as we started a slow climb over the Bay of Banderas before hanging a right to head out toward Baja, passing over Punta Mita on the way.

There were several layers of clouds which we climbed through, but it was in the first one when I started trying to figure out what was wrong.

Someone a few rows up was making a yelping noise which I can’t really even describe. At first I thought it was a very weird laugh, but then it became clear it was more like a panic. As we climbed higher and higher, he got more and more anxious. His yelps turned into screams and became more frequent. This poor man was terrified, but I wasn’t sure that everything was ok.

The flight attendant came through with a service, and I asked her about it. She said he was just a very nervous flier, and it was ok. I guess he must have briefed her before we flew, though there was certainly concern from the other passengers throughout the airplane. It was loud and anxiety-provoking, to say the least.

Like the airline, the beverage service was also old school. She had coffee, water, or juice available for the short flight, and a selection of sweets. I took some chocolate chip cookies.

We settled in to cruise right in the top layer of clouds, so there wasn’t much to see. As you can imagine, the fearful flier did not like this. It was hard not to feel really bad for this guy. Fortunately, we weren’t at cruise for long. When we started our descent, all of sudden, he was quiet. I’m glad it was a smooth ride.

At long last, Baja came into view on the right side of the aircraft, but the real show wasn’t until later when we came over land just east of Cabo San Lucas. I had a spectacular view of the bay.

Just a couple minutes later, we had landed. Then we did u-turn to backtrack on the runway until we got to the gate. We had the whole fleet together as sister ship XA-SEA was getting ready to fly off to Mazatlán.

Walking off the airplane, I got a finger wag for taking a picture. It may just have been for stopping instead of continuing to walk, but I got what I wanted anyway.

The terminal building has a surprising and pleasant cactus garden out front.

We walked by it until we got to the far side where there’s a small arrival area for domestic flights.

When I booked my flight, I had added on the Cabo Cardinal transport from the airport to the hotel for MXN 350 + tax. What a great deal. When I left baggage claim, they had a sign with my name on it. A driver was ready to take me right away, with his car sitting on the curb at the sleepy airport. We had a nice ride to my next stop, the Park Hyatt Cabo del Sol.

When I made the change, the morning flights had no award space, so I booked the 1pm. Even though there didn’t appear to be a mechanism for same day changes, I thought I’d try to go early and see if I could squeak on an earlier flight. That did not go well.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

I headed to the airport and got there about 1h20m before the next earlier flight, so I could try to get on. My Uber driver was a really curious guy, and we had a great conversation in Spanish. The ride went by quickly.

Aeromexico uses Terminal 2 on the south side of the airport, and every part of it seemed to be under construction, even the approach at the curb.

I walked inside and went to the counter where a lineminder understood what I wanted to do and when the flight was, so she pointed me to the line I needed. I got in it, and waited. There was one agent working this area, and she promptly left. At this point, a baggage checking agent and a SkyPriority agent would occassionally take a break and call one of us over. It was very slow.

By the time I got to an agent, he told me that the flight closed one hour before departure… which was 5 minutes earlier. Had Aeromexico’s lineminders been willing to help or had there actually been an agent working our line, I might have had a chance. The agent I eventually saw scolded me (in a nice-ish way, I guess) for not getting to the airport early. He then pointed me to the security area and wouldn’t have any further discussion.

I resolved to try the gate, so I went through security only to find he had directed me to the checkpoint near Hall M, furthest from the earlier flight’s gate, so I had a long walk. There was a central help area where I didn’t see anyone. (Maybe I missed them? There was a lot of construction going on here.) I went to the gate and waited for boarding to finish. I asked nicely if I could get on but was told no. I was willing to pay. It just seemed like Aeromexico’s default answer was no to everything, when I could find someone to ask.

So that was that. With only 2.5 hours until my flight, it wasn’t that bad, but I did have time to kill. I trudged back to the Priority Pass lounge where I got a sad and tiny plate of chilaquiles alongside largely non-functional internet and waited for my flight.

When the gate posted, it was on the other concourse this time which was closer to the lounge. This one was just as chaotic as the other concourse. There was active work being done which included a cacophony of drill and other loud noises that drowned out any announcements. It was a lot to take in.

I got to the gate about 45 minutes before departure and people were already lined up.

Soon after, boarding began.

Aeromexico 334
January 16, 2026

From Mexico City
➤ Scheduled Departure: 1p
➤ Actual Departure: 102p
➤ From Gate: 66
➤ Wheels Up: 122p
➤ From Runway: 05L

To Puerto Vallarta
➤ Wheels Down: 230p
➤ On Runway: 22
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 248p
➤ Actual Arrival: 235p
➤ At Gate: 6

Aircraft
➤ Type: Boeing 737-9 MAX
➤ Delivered: April 26, 2022
➤ Registered: XA-MFO, msn 43761
➤ Livery: Red Line Swoop Livery

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 20A
➤ Load: 85% Full
➤ Flight Time: 1h08m

The airplane was beautiful on the inside, outfitted with big inflight entertainment screens and giant bins. I took my seat behind the exit and settled in. Unfortunately, IFE wasn’t usable while we were at the gate. It just scrolled through pre-programmed messaging.

We pushed back a couple minutes late. The nice part of Terminal 2 is that you’re close to the end of the runway, so it’s not a long way to go. We began our elevation-influenced, long and bouncy takeoff roll before heading up into the sky. I had a nice view of what could (should) have been a lovely new airport at Texcoco on my left.

Right after passing it, we did a long sweeping turn to the south to point our nose west for the short flight to Puerto Vallarta.

Aeromexico has Viasat internet, and it worked well. I watched a video to get a paltry 15-minute wifi session. If I wanted to pay, it was $5 for an hour or $8 for the whole flight… which was basically an hour. I didn’t bother.

The flight attendants came through and handed out… peanuts! You don’t see that in the US anymore. I had my headphones on and was looking out the window, so the drink cart just skipped me entirely, which was a bummer.

It was a pretty day outside with several large isolated thunderheads dotting the landscape. I only wish they were more isolated so I could have seen the terrain below.

We began our descent through several layers of clouds. The flight attendants came through to collect trash, but when they got to me, the guy looked at my peanut wrapper and told me to put it in the seatback pocket. Uh, ok.

We descended through the hazy sky until landing nice and early. We parked right back where my Mexicana flight had left from on Monday, and I again confirmed that there are no connections behind security allowed there, even if you arrive at a jet bridge. They route you straight into baggage claim and then out the door, which was exactly where I wanted to be this time.

I spent the next three nights at the Delta Hotels Riviera Nayarit which is not your typical Puerto Vallarta vacation. It’s west of the airport toward Punta Mita, and it’s in a valley. There are pools and buildings on different levels throughout the property.

There are great views, but unless you go to the beach club, you aren’t going to be in the sand. For me, it was perfect as I could rest up before the next part of the journey.

As we all know by now, the US and Israel have invaded Iran, and Iran has fought back by firing missiles at and targeting drones in just about any country within reach. Iran can’t reach the US directly, so instead it is largely looking at US targets in the region — plus Israel, of course — but it is also seemingly just shooting for chaos. Case-in-point: the attacks on Dubai’s airport.

With the US and Israel seemingly wanting regime change and requiring “unconditional surrender,” it was up to Iran’s leaders to either roll over or get wild. Iran is very weak after years of sanctions and the last round of nuclear infrastructure targeting by the US and Israel, so if it didn’t roll over, it was going to have to find a way to fight differently. To the surprise of absolutely nobody outside the government, Iran has chosen the “scrappy and desperate” plan. To prove its path, it has named hard-liner (and son of the last hard-liner) Mojtaba Khameini as the new supreme leader.

It seems like all of this hit home this weekend when oil prices started to skyrocket. That is, of course, a huge concern for the airline industry. Fuel costs are shooting through the roof as well.

Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz which happens to be an annoyingly important transit route for oil. Let’s map it.

Remember the Gulf War in 1990/1991? That was at least partially over an oil drilling dispute that ended with Iraq invading Kuwait at the top of the Persian (or Arabian, depending upon who you ask) Gulf. This is a very oil-rich region, and tankers are a key way to get oil and gas out of there and around the world, especially into Asia. About a quarter of all tankered oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz and a fifth of all liquified natural gas does too.

The strait is circled in red on the map. It just happens to be a very narrow point where the tippy top of Oman (yes, that’s an exclave of Oman and not part of the United Arab Emirates), sits a mere 24 miles away from Iran at its narrowest point. There isn’t much room to spare, having only one shipping lane in each direction. Each are two miles wide. Closing the Strait causes major global oil problems. But why would Iran want to hurt the entire globe? Ah…

Remember that whole “scrappy and desperate” thing I mentioned? Well, when you can’t fight fire with fire, you get desperate to play to any strengths you have. And for Iran, one enormous strength is the ability to close off the Strait of Hormuz. None of this is a surprise. Every time Iran got mad at the US over the years, it would threaten to close the strait. This time, it actually did it.

Most of this oil doesn’t come to the US, but that doesn’t matter. Oil is a global market, and even the threat of reduced supply will spike prices everywhere. With the realization this past weekend that this situation wasn’t going to end quickly, the markets responded and prices shot through the roof.

Despite some frenzied overreaction that saw oil rise to over $110 a barrel over the weekend, it has settled back down to a still painfully-expensive $85 a barrel range as of the time of writing. I imagine this will continue to be volatile for some time.

The bigger issue for the airlines, however, is that jet fuel is proving to be spiking even more than barrels of oil alone. Take a look:

Yesterday, jet fuel was averaging $3.67 a gallon in the US, and it’s going higher. So what does that mean in practice? Let’s use Southwest as an example since it very publicly decided to stop hedging fuel at the worst possible time.

Southwest in 2025 averaged $2.41 per gallon for a total of $5.24 billion in total fuel expense. That was 19 percent of the airline’s operating costs. In Q1 of this year, it guided to an expected $2.40 per gallon price.

At $3.67 per gallon, just as a thought exercise, this would be another $2.7 billion fuel cost annually based on 2025 usage. This is more than a 10 percent increase in operating expense right off the bat.

If this were truly a short-term spike, it can be easily weathered, but the whole point of this post is to show that it doesn’t look like it’s going to be short term. The Iranian regime has every incentive to do everything in its power to prevent the stated goals of the US and Israel from happening, and we know it doesn’t care about what it may have to do to the people of Iran to achieve those goals. There will be ups and downs and twists and turns as this conflict drags on, but it’s hard to see how it doesn’t… drag on.

Of course, it’s possible oil prices could come down quickly, but that’s actually a worst case scenario. That would indicate that demand for oil has plummeted which would in turn mean we are all in for tough economic times ahead.

If you’re an airline what do you do? You cut capacity. (Ok, maybe not to India since that traffic isn’t going through the Middle East right now as it usually does.) I imagine they’ll probably wait a little to ensure that this isn’t truly a one week spike in oil, but even with some decline in demand for tickets, there (hopefully) isn’t going to be enough let-up to allow oil to settle back down to where it was. The only lever airlines have to deal with that cost spike is to cut capacity and raise fares.

For an airline like Southwest or Delta, this is a relatively straightforward effort. But it could be the death knell for an airline in a more precarious position, maybe one based on Fort Lauderdale? Smaller shocks have pushed airlines to the brink before.

The 114-page “results release” is insanely long, but the meat is contained in far fewer pages which are full of interesting nuggets. So, today, I’m going to share those bits and pieces with you, so you don’t have to read the whole thing yourself.

I’ve combed through the release, and this isn’t supposed to be a broad overview of the business. Instead, I’m just going in order. When I saw something I was interested in, I put it aside to mention here.

Return of excess cash of €1.5 billion
–and later–
In line with our policy to manage an efficient but strong balance sheet and in anticipation of the step-up in capital expenditure over the next five years, we will distribute excess cash to shareholders when net leverage is below 1.0x to 1.5x.

When IAG says it this way, it makes sense, doesn’t it? If IAG doesn’t need a ton of cash, why not return it to shareholders? But this is really just a share buyback program, and it’s in addition to the dividend which it just upped for 2025 to 8.9 percent of the share value. Everybody does the share buyback program thing, but that just sounds far more crude. But how do you know how much cash you need? I think we could argue that right about now… more cash is important. Just look at those oil prices (which I’m going to cover soon.)

So this sets a good target, but it also explains other opportunities where cash might be needed. For example…

We are currently participating in the partial disposal process by the Portuguese government of TAP, which we think is a strategically interesting opportunity for the Group but will have to be on terms that create value for IAG’s shareholders.

Mergers and acquisitions obviously create opportunity, and they consider that when determining how much cash to keep around. But also, giant self-inflicted oil price spikes are another reason to keep cash around.

Iberia delivered a 16.2% margin, an excellent performance, with British Airways not far behind at 15.2%

I’ve written about this before, but the rise of Iberia has been nothing short of a miracle. BA has it easy with a focus on heavily slot-controlled Heathrow. But for Iberia to deliver better margins? That is truly amazing.

During 2025 British Airways’ capacity was broadly flat [on the North Atlantic], as lower aircraft availability offset growth

Overall, IAG wants to grow capacity 2 to 4 percent per year, but unsurprisingly, BA is not the growth vehicle. Interestingly, BA is the only airline that could actually grow from Heathrow over the North Atlantic, because it could shift slots from other geographies. But that opportunity doesn’t appear to be worthwhile. That being said…

Both Aer Lingus and Iberia started to deploy their new A321XLR aircraft, profitably delivering growth from greater
frequency, year-round services and targeting secondary destinations. (Note: IAG later says “which are already exceeding expectations from both a customer and financial standpoint”) Competitor growth into both Spain and Ireland from North America has been significant, so the ability to deploy these efficient aircraft is strategically important.

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, it is notable that IAG says the A321XLR deployments have been profitable AND have exceeded expectations. We don’t know how profitable, but this could have gone differently. But yes, in Spain and Ireland, there has been a lot of growth over the Atlantic. IAG sees that, and likes the idea of growing in differentiated ways using narrowbodies on routes that others probably can’t or won’t touch.

Whilst there is more capacity now being added [over the South Atlantic] by other airlines, Iberia’s competitive cost base, investment in its customers and operational efficiency is delivering exceptional performance.

This is a surprise. IAG crows about also putting the A321XLR into Brazil, as well as being the largest airline over the South Atlantic. But I do wonder what IAG means by Iberia’s “competitive cost base.” Is it better than BA? Well of course. But it can’t compete with someone like LATAM. Maybe the Latin carriers aren’t concerning at this point?

[For short-haul,] we have seen good performance in our core market of Spain but demand in Northern Europe has been weaker, exacerbated by higher costs to operate in those markets.

This certainly bodes well for a company with its big Iberia and Vueling operations in Spain. But Northern Europe, well, that would seem to be bad news for the likes of Aer Lingus. Sure it’s not great for BA, but BA has a defensible fortress in a high-dollar market. Aer Lingus doesn’t have that same dynamic, so it will probably spend a lot more time going to sunny spots on the Med than elsewhere.

Our two most important non-financial metrics are On Time Performance (OTP) and Customer NPS

“Non-financial” is certainly the key here since this is a very finance-forward company. Historically, these are not airlines that would win on either metric, but BA has certainly improved its product dramatically, and the whole group has seen on-time performance rise with BA getting its act together most of all.

[IAG Loyalty is] seeing growth coming predominantly from new members collecting Avios from existing IAG partners, as reflected by the business increasing its active customer base by 10% in the year and issuing 13% more Avios in 2025 than in 2024

Credit cards will never be as lucrative in Europe as they are in the US thanks to consumer protections being stronger, but IAG is still making money on this business. And now it’s making more with profit having doubled since 2019 as it keeps doling out those Avios.

[Holidays] higher quality revenue coming mainly from changes to the British Airways Club scheme. It saw a 9% increase in revenue per booking and 83% of revenue now comes from British Airways Club members. In particular, revenue from members of British Airways Club elite tiers is growing more than 15 times faster than revenue from other members

If you’ve ever wondered why airlines change their loyalty programs around, well, here you go. It’s wildly profitable if you do it right, and it can hit the business in different ways.

We now have the objective to ensure our gross leverage remains between 1.5x and 2.0x by increasing the number of unencumbered aircraft in the fleet

There’s a lot of talk about the right amount of debt, and IAG is pretty conservative. I guess that’s what happens when you work to gain and maintain an investment grade rating, something most airlines in the US would envy. (I believe only Alaska, Delta, and Southwest have that today.) But what’s interesting is how IAG is going to focus on its leverage. Instead of just paying down debt — which, to be clear, it did do to the tune of €1.6 billion in 2025 — it is just paying cash for airplanes and boosting the value of its debt-free assets.

Iran war threatens $11.7 trillion global travel industry as passengers get caught in crossfire – CNBC

I know the headline is about Iran, but Cranky Network Weekly was quoted in here with our look at what is happening in Puerto Vallarta. Remember when we all thought that cartel violence was a big deal? Ah, the good old days…

The end of the Spirit era: How a budget airline reshaped Cleveland’s skies – Cleveland.com

Here’s a nostalgic look back at Spirit’s time in Cleveland now that the airline has announced it will end service to the city. This is the right way to look at Spirit and what it offered travelers over the years, even if its future in general is far from certain. Sure it may have stranded people more than it should have, but it absolutely was a pioneer in providing low fares in the US.

Breeze Airways launches first international service from RDU – The Business Journals

This one is paywalled, but with Avelo having left the Caribbean from RDU, the local market seems a little gunshy about whether new service will last. Breeze, however, certainly has a better chance of lasting in RDU to Punta Cana thanks to its strategy in the city.

Out-of-control airline passenger caught on video ripping into flight crew in ‘sad’ meltdown – Fox News

Am I really posting something from Fox News with a breathless headline about a passenger meltdown? Reluctantly, yes. But I was quoted in the article, so I figured I’d share even over-hyped “news” coverage like this. Basically, I said that unruly passengers are still rare despite the persistent media coverage, and travelers should listen to crews and avoid getting involved if it does happen. It’s not rocket science, but more importantly, it’s highly unlikely this will happen to you anyway.

It’s a two-fer this week as Brian and I spend the first half of the show talking about Spirit’s latest plan, and then we shift to Chicago for the second half. Jon was out again this week, but he should return next week.

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Middle Eastern Carriers Resume Limited Ops

Following a week of uncertainty amidst conflict in and around Iran, Emirates and Etihad both began limited flights to their respective bases of Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Friday.

Etihad will operate what it’s calling a “limited schedule” through at least March 19. It will serve 70 destinations from Abu Dhabi for the next two weeks, down from the 90+ it has normally. As part of the drawdown, the carrier made it crystal clear that it will not serve Newark for the duration of the conflict. This comes despite Newark not being an Etihad destination before the conflict, so nothing’s changed, it only wants there to be no confusion.

Emirates’s version of a limited schedule will be flights to 82 destinations, a more significant reduction from the ~140 it boasts. Regional competitor Qatar remains shut down from any semblance of regular ops for now as Doha remains closed. The carrier is operating a very limited number of repatriation flights from neighboring Oman and Saudi Arabia for the time being. El Al, meanwhile, has begun a severely reduced schedule, as Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport opened to allow about one arrival and one departure per hour.

Additionally, to help relieve some of the stress on the system in the Middle East, both American and United have agreed to increase their service levels from Chicago/ORD to a bunch of random midwestern cities for the next several weeks. And to Florida…it’s always Florida.

FAA Steps in to Send American and United Back to their Corners

The boxing match — or faceoff, or showdown, or duel — between American and United in Chicago finally has a referee. Both airlines, along with the Chicago Department of Aviation were forced into a sit down with the FAA this week to figure out how to calm the capacity escalations at Chicago/ORD.

The two airlines have announced schedules that will be impossible to operate once the summer hits, and the FAA is going to force the two to draw down their capacity for the greater good. (The Greater Good) Right now, some days this summer have as many as 3,080 daily operations on the books at ORD, a dramatic increase from last year’s peak of 2,680. The question is whether or not the airlines will volunteer enough cuts on their own, or whether the government will call for a proportional drawdown, or if it will cast a heavy hand towards one airline or the other.

For more on Wednesday’s 4-way showdown between the four acronyms all ending in A: AA, UA, CDA, FAA, please visit Wednesday’s post on crankyflier.com

Delta: When the Laughter Stops

Several weeks after the retirement of president Glen Hauenstein, Delta announced his replacement along with the retirement of John Laughter. Laughter, who chuckled his way to a 30-year career, is currently the carrier’s EVP, Chief of Operations, president of Delta TechOps, and Biscoff Taste Tester. He will step down April 30. Delta HR is reportedly assessing its health insurance options for all staff in its Atlanta headquarters, as Laughter — which we all know is the best medicine — will no longer be available to staff.

In other news, Peter Carter is being promoted to President for the carrier, a key role that involves a hand in all the day-to-day ops of the airline, a special focus on network planning and scheduling, and ensuring that CEO Ed Bastian’s calendar is clear whenever Tom Brady wants to hang out (which we assume is never). Dan “Don’t call me” Janki will take over as COO, a promotion from his CFO role which basically boiled down to devaluing SkyMiles once a week.

Erik Snell will take over as CFO after 20 years at the carrier and his first task will be to see if a 1,000,000 SkyMile Main Cabin redemption to Europe is in play for 2026. CMO Alicia Tillman will be leaving the airline to “pursue broader leadership opportunities” whatever that means, and she will be replaced by Tom Brady’s second cousin’s neighbor.

DOT Gives the Green Light for VenezuelAA Ops

The DOT approved American’s request to resume service to Venezuela, and when it begins, it will mark the first U.S. commercial service to the country in about seven years.

AA will serve both Caracas and Maracaibo from Miami on American Eagle service operated by Envoy Air, with no clear date for flights to begin. The DOT suspended service to Venezuela in May 2019 following an assesment of risk to customers, crews, and the airplanes themselves.

TSA representatives were in Caracas last week reviewing airport security features while ensuring Venezuela’s security screeners didn’t smile too much or give clear instructions to passengers. The TSA team then traveled to several other airports in the country to enforce its rule that screeners give conflicting information on what is or isn’t allowed at different airports, keeping travelers on their toes for the entire journey.

Senate Confirms NTSB Vice Chair Replacement

We can all rest easy tonight because the Senate confirmed the appointment of former AA executive John DeLeeuw to replace former Vice Chair Alvin Brown who was fired in May.

Brown is not going quietly into the night, as he is currently suing the Trump administration over his removal. Regardless of how that shakes out, DeLeeuw, the former Managing Director of Safety and Efficiency at American will now take his talents to the federal government. And let’s be honest, no one is better suited for federal government work than a guy who was director of efficiency at…American Airlines.

Many groups backed the appointment, including AA, Boeing, A4A, APA, Southwest, SWAPA and others.

• Air Astana is adding 25 narrowbody Airbus aircraft to its fleet.
• American is having catering issues in London.
• arajet might be growing. Also maybe not.
• avianca is the new jersey sponsor of Miami FC.
• BA took an €84.4 million L in court.
• Cabo Verde Airlines has Providence on its mind, because someone has to.
• Delta‘s new SkyClub in Denver is open.
• Gol scored five new A330-900neos.
• Lufthansa will begin serving Kuala Lumpur from its Frankfurt hub in October.
• Mexicana is seeking a U.S. charter permit to operate domestic flights during the World Cup this summer.
• Norwegian launched its first state-subsidized domestic route between Aalborg and Copenhagen in Denmark.
• Qantas reported its financials.
• Qatar is reducing its stake in Virgin Australia.
• Ryanair is growing in Krakow until someone in the city government tries to levy a tax or says something that hurts its feelings.
• United does not want to hear what it is your watching or listening to.
• t’way will v’ote on its rebrand later this month, and if we had a vote, it would be a hard n’way
• Virgin Australia will buy nine of its B737-8s on order rather than go the dry lease route.
• Wizz Air says the current situation in the Middle East will cost it at least $58 million for its year-end earnings.

In the metro Las Vegas area, many churchgoers will give casino chips instead of cash when the collection plate is passed around. Because the churches receive chips from several different casinos, several houses of worship in the Vegas area devised a plan to collect all the offerings and send them to a nearby Franciscan monastery just north of the city for sorting. At the monastery, the chips are sorted, taken to the casino of origin and cashed in. This is done by chip monks.

Until recently, United was flying 19 of the so-called A-model aircraft. These were the earliest deliveries of the B777, and they didn’t have the range that the later versions had. The first was aptly-registered N777UA, and it went into service on June 7, 1995 from London/Heathrow to Washington/Dulles.

Over time, these airplanes were isolated toward domestic routes and given a product to match. I can recall the pain of sitting in the “double excuse me” seat in the middle of the five in the center section. There were pairs of two on the window sides. These airplanes were outfitted with recliners up front and a sea of coach seats in the back.

Eventually, they were densified, getting a small number of the cast-off front-back business class seats that United used to use internationally as well as a 3-4-3, 10-abreast configuration in the back. While the internationally-configured aircraft had 276 seats onboard, these — along with four extended range (ER) models that were put in the domestic configuration — were fitted with 364 seats. To complete the ambience, United put no in-seat video on these airplanes. They were designed to move a lot of people cheaply. And they are damn good at it.

I imagine that if United could fly these forever, it would. But they are struggling to support the engines, and that means groundings. Of the 19 A models, six are parked in Victorville, including good ole’ N777UA itself. Two of those made the trip out there this year. Oh, and of the four ERs in domestic configurations, two have joined the Victorville party.

This has understandably resulted in a lot fewer flights planned on these airplanes this year versus last. To understand the extent of the change, I went into Cirium data to compare this July’s plan with a year earlier. Here it is:

United 777-200 Route Map Jul 2026 vs Jul 2025

^{Green – no change, red – frequency decrease, gray – exit
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper® – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.}

I realize that image doesn’t say a ton, but let me explain. In July 2025, there were 16 routes with regular service. This year there will be only eight. The airplane will continue to play to its strengths, shuttling travelers to and from Hawaiʻi and across the mainland.

Honolulu will have double daily from both Denver and LA with single daily service from Houston and San Francisco. Kahului will also have a single daily flight from Denver. Other than that, these airplanes will only fly Newark to both LAX and SFO twice daily along with a once daily Houston – SFO run, presumably to shuttle airplanes back into the SFO maintenance base.

Of these routes, both Denver – Kahului and Houston – Honolulu see a frequency reduction from 8x weekly to 1x daily. It’s not a big reduction, but it is a cut nonetheless since there isn’t a replacement on another fleet. But what’s interesting is to see how United has replaced the B777 elsewhere.

• From Denver, Chicago/O’Hare and San Francisco each had 1x daily eastbound and 2x daily westbound while Houston had 13x weekly, but those have largely replaced their flying with the A321neo with additional frequencies so seats are actually flat or up
• Denver – Kona has 1x daily and that has been downgauged to a B757-200, seats are down
• Los Angeles – Houston had 1x daily which turns into 2x daily B737-9 MAX, seats are up
• Los Angeles – Washington/Dulles loses 1x daily B777, but it goes into the B757-300 and B737-9 MAX which results in more seats
• San Francisco – Chicago/O’Hare took 2x daily eastbound and 1x daily westbound and moved into the A321neo and B757-300, seats are up
• San Francisco – Honolulu loses 2x daily B777s, but those are replaced with 2x daily B757-300 and 1x daily B737-9 MAX flights, seats are down slightly
• San Francisco – Kona sees 1x B777 and 1x B737-8 MAX turn into 1x B757-300 and 3x B737-9 MAX, seats are up

In short, the closest thing to a B777-200, the B757-300, will do a very good job of carrying a lot of people to Hawaiʻi. And on the mainland, it’s that 200-seat A321neo which carries a lot of the load. With additional frequencies, United can capably replace the B777 in its final years.

This may not have been United’s first choice — I’m sure it would rather keep flying these airplanes — but it hasn’t missed a beat in pulling these airplanes down. Once they’re gone, that will leave Air Canada and its 440-seat B777-300ERs to carry the legacy forward of the pure, low-cost passenger hauler in North America.

This is a great city.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

It’s hard to truly grasp how big Mexico City is. There are more than 21 million people living in the metro area which covers about 3,000 square miles. Contrast that with Los Angeles which has a still hefty 18 million people but they are spread across about 34,000 square miles. Mexico City is a beast.

There are many different areas worth exploring, but I decided to use my Hyatt points to settle in the La Condesa neighborhood. I was looking forward to staying at the Hotel San Fernando, a Bunkhouse hotel with just 19 rooms. I instantly regretted this decision.

When my Uber pulled up, I could see I was in a vibrant neighborhood, but when the front desk agent handed me a pair of earplugs, I got nervous. Sure enough, the old walls of this historic building were paper thin, or maybe it was the windows. Either way, I never slept well there.

I was happy to take the welcome drink when I arrived, but it turned sour when they asked me for a tip on it. I just went to my room and did my best to sleep after the long journey into town.

The next morning, I was looking forward to the included breakfast of fruit and pan dulce, but it was really just a few meager slices of fruit. Of the three days I tried to eat there, the pan dulce was only there on one, and there was one tiny croissant and nothing else. The first day they told me they were out, and the last day they said it never showed up! I regretted my hotel choice.

What I didn’t regret was being in this neighborhood. La Condesa is beautiful with leafy streets, and bustling parks. I was just a few doors down from Parque México which appears to be the hub of all dog life in the city. There is a massive dog park, and people were out with their pups all day and night.

I walked by restaurants of all kinds in the neighborhood with cuisine from all over the world. I ate my way through this town with one of my favorite meals being lamb chops at Plonk right near my hotel.

That first day was mostly just me trying to get my bearings. I find there’s no better way to do that than to walk. And walk. And walk. You might be wondering if Mexico City was safe, and I didn’t feel unsafe once despite apparently wandering into some less-than-desirable neighborhoods. I was out at all times of the day and well into the evening.

That first day I started at the Zócalo which is ringed by a cathedral, the presidential palace, and the remains of the Templo Mayor from pre-Colombian civilization. That early timeframe is where I wanted to focus my attention on this trip, so I descended the steps into the walled-off remains.

The problem with most remains in Mexico City is that there aren’t many remains to speak of. When the Spaniards arrived at this lakeside spot more than 7,500 feet up and far from the ocean, they didn’t want to have to lug materials around. So, they just took apart everything the Aztec and (primarily) prior civilizations had built to use the materials in their own endeavors. That meant finding a lot of places looking like this:

These ancient ruins were not only crumbling, but they had been paved over by a sewer long ago. Some may fare better, but I found it difficult to picture what these all really looked like.

During the afternoon, I went to a more modern architectural wonder: the Museo Nacional de Antropología. The exhibits at this museum are very well done, spanning all the different eras. But it’s the structure itself — nestled away in Chapultepec park — that makes you stop and stare.

When they kicked me out at closing time at 6pm, I walked back to my hotel and soaked in the feeling of being in the middle of a bustling city where everyone was trying to head home from work either on public transit or through traffic-choked streets.

The next day, I woke up early because I was headed to Teotihuacán. These pre-Colombian ruins lie northeast of the city, east of AIFA. What makes them special? Well, the Spaniards didn’t find these in time to dismantle them. They were covered in earth and sat quietly undiscovered until recent times when people knew better than to just tear them to pieces.

The problem with Teotihuacán is that it gets very crowded later in the day, and many of the tours stop at these crappy tourist spots so they can get a kickback. I searched until I found an option that went early in the morning (6:45am departure from Parque México) and didn’t stop anywhere silly. I didn’t love the guide, but I would suggest looking for those two attributes when you look for yourself.

After about an hour in the car where I drifted in and out of sleep, my small group tour arrived at the site. It was a chilly morning, not a surprise at that altitude. After going through some of of the living chambers in one part of the city, we walked up to the Moon Temple and climbed the narrow stairs. In this photo, you can see the Sun Temple behind.

The names are ridiculous. They guessed that these temples were for the sun and the moon back in Aztec days, but over time they learned that wasn’t remotely true. For some reason, they still use those names.

We went through a variety of ruins around the city, and finished at the third major temple on site which was the most spectacular of all.

In these civilizations, structures would get built, but then when a new ruler came into play, they would just build on top of the old one and enlarge the building. So, when archaeologists found this temple, they started to explore and learned that one face had been covered. Once they finished digging that out, they found these elegant sculptures meant to honor the various gods or display their clan name.

I was back home by 1pm after our early morning adventure, and I was exhausted. I rested, but then I went walking again. I had some hot chocolate, strolled through town, and just generally enjoyed myself.

Thursday morning I was ready to visit the final ruins of my trip, Tlatelolco. This sits in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. My friends looked at me like I was crazy for going into the area by bus and walking. Apparently it’s not the safest place to be, but I never felt unsafe.

Here there are pre-Colombian ruins next to a Spanish colonial cathedral (that looks to be in need of repair), and then modern buildings.

That plaza itself is home to a memorial honoring those who died in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre when student protestors were murdered.

That afternoon I went and met friends for lunch at my other favorite restaurant on this trip, Once Mil. After, I decided to do a long walk back through Chapultepec.

There were some quiet areas, but I saw people enjoying the park in most of the places I went. I came out of the park in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood where I was able to observe life going on as normal.

School had gotten out, so kids were all over, including this one who was getting a treat.

Back at the hotel, I took a brief break before heading back out again that night to meet friends for drinks.

There’s no question that with all the walking, the high altitude, the loud hotel, and the pollution, I felt worn down. It was a good worn down, but I was not up for the next part of my adventure to Huatulco because of the logistics involved. So, I pivoted. I decided to go straight to Puerto Vallarta and spend three nights there before picking up the original itinerary as planned. That flight was on Aeromexico, and I’ll cover that next time.

The feds have decided to convene a meeting Wednesday with all interested parties to discuss what to do about the overscheduling situation this summer at O’Hare. The meeting is open to all airlines and the Chicago Department of Aviation. You can be sure both American and United will be there.

The basic point of the meeting is to figure out how to come up with a schedule that can actually be operated. As the FAA notes, peak days have more than 3,080 daily operations this year compared to only 2,680 last summer. That is not sustainable. This has been an open secret for months now in the wake of American and United bulking up their operations. There was never any chance that all of these flights could operate without serious operational problems. Now the FAA has to figure out how it wants to implement this.

The reality is that O’Hare can support about 100 departures and 100 arrivals per hour on a good day, with some wiggle room. The FAA says that means it can usually support about 2,800 total daily operations once you take into account the middle of the night when nothing is flying.

With that in mind, I turned to my trusty Cirium data to see where things stand. I looked at total operations by day for a random Monday in July this year and last year. The FAA says that it will look at flying in half-hour increments, so that’s how I broke it down. You can see where the pain points will be quite clearly.

Let’s start with 2025. Here is a look at operations by half hour on a day that had 2,502 scheduled passenger operations. (Yes, one flaw is I didn’t look at cargo and non-scheduled operations, but you get the point.)

O’Hare Scheduled Passenger Operations by Half Hour – July 14, 2025

^{Data via Cirium}

Were there times when O’Hare exceeded the 100 operations per half hour threshold? Absolutely. Most notably it was clogged with United’s big morning departure bank between 7 and 7:30am as well as the airline’s big arrival bank between 6:30 and 7pm. But look at the half hour right after those times. There was slack in the system to accommodate this overuse. The airport could function.

Now let’s take a look at the plan for this year.

O’Hare Scheduled Passenger Operations by Half Hour – July 13, 2026

^{Data via Cirium}

Oh my. There are now nine half hours that exceed the airport’s max operating limit compared to three last year. And that 7am bank has become a monster with a total of 136 scheduled operations. The problem now is that instead of having a lot of slack in the 7:30am time period, there are still 94 scheduled operations. This can start to cascade throughout the day, and it is going to be ugly.

Keep in mind, I’m still just talking about a blue-sky day. Imagine what happens when storms roll through. It will be absolute chaos.

The airline industry has been talking about this ever since the build up between American and United began, so it felt like a game of chicken. Now, the government is stepping in to put an end to it.

The plan for Wednesday is this. The FAA will decide which half hour slots are problematic. It will then take each airline into a room individually and beat them until they cut flights.

Just kidding. It will actually go like this.

… the air carrier will be asked to offer flight reductions or schedule modifications…. Any offer of flight reductions should specify the precise number of arrivals and departures, if any, the submitting air carrier is willing to remove from each of the severely congested periods… indicating whether the flight operation(s) would be cancelled or moved to another time period. The offer may not be explicitly contingent on specific flight reductions by other air carriers, but may be conditioned on the Administrator’s implementation of an overall reduction of specified numbers of flight operations toward the target during the
periods in question.

In the end, the FAA will put forth the schedule with voluntary cuts. If that solves the problem, great. If not, that’s when the beatings begin. Again, just kidding. They will go through the same boring process over and over until there’s a solution.

I’ve had some people reach out to me saying they think this is terrible news for United since it is so much bigger. Others think this was a stroke of brilliance on United’s part. I tend to fall in the latter camp, and I actually figure this was United’s plan the entire time. I would be shocked if United actually thought it was going to operate all those flights it filed.

The way I see it is this. Up until about 2018, United had about 100 more daily departures than American. In 2018 that increased closer to about 150. When United began to recover during the pandemic before American did, it found itself back with a 150 departure advantage, but that was off a lower base. American’s daily departures had dropped to around 350. You know what, let’s just look at the Cirium data chart before I go on.

United O’Hare Departures vs American by Day Over Time

^{Data via Cirium}

So with United at 500 daily and American at only 350, United had a huge advantage. But then American decided it was time to ramp up in Chicago. Seeing the gains it had made already while American was down, United decided it should go all out to try to stop American from gaining ground.

So, United added its own flights every time American did, and often, United would add even more. This summer, American is at around 520 daily departures with United as high as 780. United has increased its lead to having a more than 250 daily departure advantage. Or at least, that’s what it filed.

Does any of this make sense from a demand perspective? No. But this is a strategic move. I’m betting United never figured it would fly those 780 daily flights. Instead, if it could keep its ratio compared to American high enough, when the FAA inevitably came knocking on the door to reduce flying, they could proportionally reduce flying individually. And then, United would still have cemented a massive flight percentage premium over what American has, just with everyone having fewer flights overall.

Of course, we don’t know how the FAA will look at this. Will it agree to reductions based on what’s filed? Or will it look at what flew last year, or perhaps pre-pandemic? Chances are American will argue for going back as far as possible while United wants to use this summer. We will know more soon.

Regardless of what happens, United is likely going to still have a very substantial number of flights compared to American when all is said and done. And that had to be the airline’s ultimate goal.

Airline labor contracts in the US are unique. Unlike in most industries, airline contracts don’t expire; they simply become amendable. This allows labor negotiations to go on for ages, and as consolidation has created larger airlines that are more critical to the economy, labor groups have become all-but-prevented from striking.

We have largely been in a pattern-bargaining world lately where each new contract financially matches what the other big airlines provide with some incremental improvements. The airlines then all take turns topping the last agreement… until there’s some massive downturn where it all gets clawed back in bankruptcy. (At least, that’s been the historical pattern which we can all hope will eventually end.)

United’s flight attendants — represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) — have had an amendable contract since 2021, so we are hitting the five-year mark which is longer than most new contracts last. What has taken so long? As always, it’s complicated.

A Slow Start by Design

The early days, of course, were not ideal for the union to come to an agreement because the airlines were financially vulnerable in the COVID world. The AFA presented its opening proposal in October 2021, but it was in their best interest to wait awhile until profits returned to get serious about negotiating anyway.

When things did improve, the union didn’t want United to go first. The AFA actually lent its lead negotiator Joe Burns to American’s flight attendant union, the APFA, as its lead negotiator in their talks. This makes a whole lot of sense if you want American to agree to a deal first so that you can then swoop in with something better at United, but it also does slow things down for your own membership.

Two months after American flight attendants ratified their agreement in September 2024, the United flight attendants replaced their negotiating committee… and finally brought Joe Burns back into the fold. With that reset, it sounded like real negotiations could actually begin. Things started to move quickly.

It was only about six months later in May 2025 when a tentative agreement was announced. Unfortunately, the union misjudged what membership wanted, and what is now called TA1 was shot down in July. That meant going back to the table once again, but first, the union had to figure out where it screwed up. It sent out a survey to members, and then it went back to the airline.

United for its part seems to be hanging its hat on the idea that it gave as much economically as it could, and any additional concessions will require the union giving in elsewhere. In fact, United put out a note to flight attendants late last week which suggested that eliminating Personal Time Off (PTO) would help pay for other improvements. Apparently other airlines don’t have this, which is separate from vacation time. But this is the kind of haggling that’s going on.

I can’t imagine that United is going to hold strictly to this idea that there can be no change in the economica value, regardless of the rhetoric that gets put out there. There has to be wiggle room in any negotiation, but undoubtedly it won’t be as much as the union asks for, and that’s where we find ourselves today… waiting for that middle ground to be found.

The Issues At Hand

So what are the issues? It’s not completely clear since the union did not respond to my request for comment, but there are some clear areas of improvement that are needed to get the membership onboard.

Hugely important from what I see is the discussion around so-called “sit rigs.” Flight attendants get paid for the time worked when the door is closed on the airplane (and boarding pay will presumably be added in this round since other airlines have done that). But this means that if a trip is built with long layovers, the flight attendants — through no fault of their own — have to sit around and not get paid in between flights. There are multiple ways to deal with this, but I believe what we’ll end up seeing is that scheduled sits over a certain period of time (couple hours, maybe?) will receive some sort of pay. I believe the pilots already have that in their agreement, and it seems entirely reasonable to me.

But as United noted in an update it sent internally on Feb 13 that I reviewed, “there does remain a significant gap between our respective positions on how to offset the cost of the AFA’s new proposals.”

There is also a back-and-forth about the Preferential Bidding System (PBS) which many flight attendant groups already use. This replaces the union-built manual lines with a computerized system that lets flight attendants put in their preferences, and then assignments are made. The company likes this since it makes things more efficient, but it sounds like there may be a split between flight attendants where some like it and some don’t. Either way, it sounds like this isn’t going to happen this time unless the union changes its tune.

And then there’s the healthcare issue. We all know this story. Costs have spiraled, but workers want protection. Something will have to give on that. Some things from the company, like requiring a minimum number of hours worked to get healthcare, seem entirely reasonable. Others, likely less so.

Hopefully, the Home Stretch

With these issues still in play, why do I say that an agreement may come soon? Beyond the number of issues having been narrowed dramatically, there’s been a lot of noise and media attention coming out lately, and I think the heat is on to end this thing.

American seems to be playing some kind of game, pushing a narrative that United isn’t paying full labor costs so that somehow helps justify American’s financial underperformance. We saw this come out in the hollow opinion piece entitled “The skies for American Airlines are clearer than you think” which looks like the author just had American write the article and he signed his name. This is quite laughable since United not only took a $561 million charge in 2025 as a result of the previous tentative agreement, but it also includes the expected impacted of labor agreements being concluded in its 2026 guidance which is far superior to American’s.

But AFA leader Sara Nelson is also jumping on this bandwagon, comparing United CEO Scott Kirby unfavorably with American CEO Robert Isom who she portrays as a friend of labor. She piled on when American subsidiary PSA came to an agreement with its flight attendants. I imagine she thinks putting Scott Kirby against Robert Isom — a relationship with a whole lot of history dating back to American, US Airways, and even America West — will somehow get things done. Strange bedfellows….

But all of this noise is more of a distraction that just pushes in the right direction. There are two multi-day negotiating sessions scheduled in March. The internal communications have ramped up, and the union sounds uncharacteristically optimistic. In its latest Feb 16 note, it said:

We believe that, given the number of open issues and the progress we have made, we should be able to reach an agreement in March.

So now, we wait. With any luck, we can finally stop talking about this particular labor issue soon and move on to the next one.

Spirit Airlines may end Las Vegas flights from several West Coast cities – 3 News Las Vegas

The word “may” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that title, but I did speak with 3 News about where Spirit’s priorities appear to lie these days. And they are not in Las Vegas. Would it shock me to see Spirit cut those remaining few short-haul flights from Vegas? Not one bit, especially if it shuts the Las Vegas crew base. There’s a lot of weird thinking in the video, especially the part saying that people should buy their Christmas tickets now, but well… I didn’t talk to them about that.

This week on The Air Show, Brian leads us in talking about United’s new MileagePlus earning change. Have the credit card? You are important. You don’t? You are not. It’s yet another move away from actual flying loyalty toward, well, just being a financial services company. Have a listen.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts
• Listen on Amazon
• Listen on Pocket Casts

If at First You Don’t Succeed…Spirit Nears Bankruptcy Exit (Again)

Our long, yellow-painted, BuzzBallz-loving, ultra-low cost national nightmare just might be over…for now. Spirit announced it has “completed another significant milestone in its restructuring by reaching an agreement in principle on the key terms of a restructuring support agreement with its existing DIP lenders and secured noteholders.” We asked ChatGPT what that means and learned that Spirit “has made meaningful progress in its bankruptcy or financial restructuring process.” So congrats, Spirit. We think.

Key aspects of the new Spirit (not to be confused with the new Spirit that emerged after bankruptcy last year) include an optimized network, which begs the question why they were flying a non-optimized network all those years; more premium choices, which is great because when consumers think of Spirit, premium is often the first word that comes to mind; and stronger financials, which, yeah, that couldn’t really get worse.

For more on Spirit’s latest emergence from bankruptcy, please visit Thursday’s post on crankyflier.com.

American Sues JetBlue for $100 Million

Have you ever been in a brief relationship that once felt like he or she could be “the one” but you ended up being forced to break up due to a ruling from the Department of Justice leading your now ex to end up with one of your rivals, so you decide to sue them for $100 million? Heated Rivalry it is not. But Judge Jerry Bullard of the Texas Business Court in Fort Worth denied JetBlue’s request for dismissal forcing the case to move closer to trial. While it seems likely that this will end in a settlement and not actually end up in court, it’s definitely not a win for JetBlue.

The Texas court said it had jurisdiction because JetBlue “purposefully sought benefits” from the state of Texas, operated thousands of Texas flights under the alliance, employed personnel in the state, and leased airport property. Oh and also because the judge is an Executive Platinum on American, finds it very convenient to fly from his Fort Worth home, and “never really liked that JetBlue logo.”

American says its former partner failed to make contractual payments of about $1 million during the dissolution of the partnership, which it thinks entitles it to a $100 million verdict in court. Ok then.

Breeze Blows Into Two New Destinations

Breeze Airways will be adding two new airports to its stable this summer, with service beginning to Tallahassee on July 2, and Birmingham on July 3. Both cities will see service to both Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham with BHM operating 2x weekly and TLH 3x weekly.

As part of this expansion, Breeze is adding a grand total of 17 new flights, some of which go where people want to fly. Besides the four listed above, it will also add:

• Akron/Canton: Portland (ME) (2x weekly)
• Atlantic City: Tampa (2x weekly)
• Cincinnati: Greenville/Spartanburg, Portland (ME) (2x weekly on both)
• Columbus: Savannah, Tampa (2x weekly on both)
• Fort Lauderdale: Charleston (SC) (3x weekly), Greenville/Spartanburg (4x weekly), Jacksonville (1x daily), Salisbury (2x weekly), Tampa (13x weekly), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (2x weekly)
• Myrtle Beach: Pittsburgh (2x weekly)

American Plans MIA ExpAAnsion

What’s American to do with the $100 million it wants from JetBlue? Sounds like a good down payment on a $1 billion terminal expansion it has planned at its Latin American gateway in Miami. (Or it could just blow it all in Chicago…)

The plan is to reimagine Concourse D at the airport, perhaps in an attempt to keep up with the new Airside D at its neighbor and rival airport in Tampa to ensure it has the biggest D in Florida. The project is expected to begin next summer with completion in 2030, which seems… optimistic. Once completed, the three-level extension to Concourse D will feature 17 new gates which will have space for larger aircraft and jet bridge access for each.

The project will be focused around gate D60, currently a crowded, American Eagle-heavy gate that reminds many of the old gate 35X at DCA that left thousands of us scarred for life. The third-level access is crucial because that’s where it stores all of the unused American/JetBlue promotional materials… plus that’s where MIA’s CBP infrastructure is located, allowing international arrivals into the space.

Qantas Makes Seasonal Gamble on Las Vegas

This is a fun one. Qantas Airways’s newest U.S. destination is a surprise — it’s going to fly 3x weekly to Las Vegas during the northern winter, beginning on December 29 and continuing through March 12.

The eastbound flight is blocked at 13:55, departing Sydney at 9 p.m. and arriving five hours earlier than it left, at 3:55 p.m. You pay for it on the way back, as the 15:15 westbound flight will leave at 8:20 p.m. and arrive two days later at 6:35 a.m. This marks the first scheduled nonstop flight from Australia to Las Vegas, and it’ll be operated with a B787 Dreamliner. Qantas outfits these with 42 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, 166 economy seats, and four slot machines in the mid-galley that are only turned on when over Nevada airspace.

Vegas will be the 101st city in the Qantas route network and the 8th in the Americas, joining Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Santiago, and Vancouver. The city noted that in recognition of the inaugural, for one night only, on December 29, 2026, the famous Bellagio fountains are expected to spew Vegemite into the Lake of Dreams instead of water.

Qantas has operated charter flights on the SYD-LAS route during the National Rugby League’s annual kickoff in Las Vegas. This scheduled service will be timed to operate during the 2027 event and the annual CES in January.

• Air Astana is ordering 15 Dreamliners.
• Air Canada Rouge received its first B737-8 MAX from mainline AC.
• Air India‘s partnership with Lufthansa and friends is growing.
• Air New Zealand posted a loss in the first half of its fiscal year.
• Avelo is postponing its E2 deliveries into 2028.
• Bamboo Airways might lease some B737 MAX aircraft. Also it might not.
• EgyptAir is adding Chicago and resuming Los Angeles this summer from Cairo.
• Ethiopian is growing its domestic presence.
• flydubai will begin 2x daily service to Bangkok in September.
• Hilaac Air, the Somalian startup carrier of your dreams received its first Saab 340.
• JetBlue is ending service to both Asheville and Belize City, ending the dream of one-stop service from AVL-BZE through FLL on the airline.
• KLM reported €416 million of profit in 2025, which it clearly isn’t thrilled about considering the headline to its earnings said its 2025 performance was “stable.”
• Norse Atlantic is expecting a profitable 2026, according to the guy whose job depends on it having a profitable 2026.
• oneworld named former Finnair CCO Ole Orvér as its new CEO. He will start in his new role April 1. No foolin’.
• Qatar will cut summer capacity to its Doha base due to runway work being done at the airport. The airline plans to reduce schedules to provide the least disruption to customers except for you. Your flight will definitely be canceled and rebooked three days earlier or three days later, whichever is worse.
• PAL named José Maria Alvarado as its new regional head of sales for North America. He reportedly got the job because he was PALs with the hiring committee.
• Philippine Airlines plans to begin service to Chicago this summer. We have unconfirmed reports as of press time that both American and United are now considering opening 4x daily ORD-MNL service as retaliation.
• Virgin Australia was the most on-time airline in Australia for January.
• WestJet completed a trade with Boeing in which it gave up six future 737-10s for two future B787-9s, a 3rd round draft pick, and two tickets from Boeing’s season ticket allotment in Seattle with the Calgary Flames play the Kraken.

Friend 1: What do you do?

Friend 2: I race cars.

Friend 1: That’s great, do you win many races?

Friend 2: No, the cars are much faster.

While this was enough of a milestone for Spirit to put out a press release, it doesn’t guarantee that this ends well for the airline. What it does do is give us some more information to chew on. Spirit has been remarkably quiet, most noticeably in that it still hasn’t filed its December operating statistics. I have no idea what’s going on with that, but it has certainly kept rumors swirling.

But now have a plan that will allow Spirit to complete its restructuring. Unlike the first bankruptcy filing, this slashes costs significantly with debt and aircraft lease obligations tanking from $7.4 billion to around $2.1 billion. Of course, getting rid of more than half your fleet will do that. Commercially, the plan seems to focus on creating a small, Allegiant-like airline with a premium-heavy focus. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Though broad strokes were laid out in the release, it’s an interview that CEO Dave Davis did with CNBC that really shined a light on more details. When I last wrote about Spirit’s fleet plans, it was poised to shrink from 214 airplanes to less than 100. Now it may shrink even further by shedding additional, high-cost aircraft leases that it had not originally rejected.

That last look I did still had 28 A320neo family airplanes on lease, but if the airline rejects those, it will go to an all-A320ceo family fleet. That’s older, some airplanes are owned, and yes, it’s cheaper by a lot. Maybe they don’t all go away, but what is clear is that the future of this airline is in second-hand, used aircraft that cost less. This move would make sense considering the airline’s plan to have “higher aircraft utilization during peak days while reducing off-peak flying, as well as the flexibility to adjust to seasonal demand across markets.”

This has long been Allegiant’s hallmark — and Sun Country’s as well, for that matter. Considering that current CEO Dave Davis came from Sun Country, perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise. With low aircraft ownership costs, Spirit can fly the airplanes when demand exists and park them when it doesn’t. Allegiant, of course, flies its planes when people want to leave their smaller towns and come primarily to leisure bases in Florida, Nevada, and Arizona. But the CNBC interview suggests that Spirit will focus on the four areas where you would expect considering the current schedule that’s filed.

Spirit’s Fort Lauderdale home will remain important, though it sounds like weakness in Latin America may see that connectivity reduce to some extent. Orlando is also a key city. Other than that? It’s New York and Detroit. Those four will make up the bulk of Spirit’s flying.

Doesn’t this sound like the opposite of Frontier’s current plan? Frontier, after all, just walked away from a lot of New York flying because the airports were too expensive, and it decided to boost utilization by increasing off-peak flying. These airlines just keep trying each other’s strategies on for size until something works.

Yes, there are differences here. Most notably it’s the fleet strategy where Frontier sticks to higher-cost airplanes which can make a real difference. But one thing that both airlines continue to push on is the move to premium. This release says Spirit will expand its First and Premium Economy offerings. This is all relatively new for the airline anyway, but it thinks it needs to lean in further if wants to get more traction. There isn’t money in cheap seats in the back anymore.

I don’t know if that means the premium strategy is working or if it still just appears to be the best path forward. What most certainly is NOT working, however, is Spirit’s operation. That is going to hamper any shot at a recovery if it can’t be fixed quickly. Just take a look at this Anuvu data showing how bad it’s been since December.

Spirit Operational Performance by Month

^{Data via Anuvu}

Now I have to admit that the Feb-to-date number could be closer to 8 percent canceled since there are a few hundred flights that just have “Other” as their status in the system, but either way, it’s very bad since it should be under 1 percent. The culprit appears to be a crew issue. Maybe having this plan in place will convince crews that it’s worth showing up for work, because there’s likely to be a job there for longer. But then again, I don’t have visibility into what’s actually going on. I just know the operation is awful right now, and it has to get better.

This may be good news for Spirit’s plans to… keep existing for awhile longer, but we still haven’t seen any sort of financial performance that suggests there’s a true path forward for the airline in the long run. I say that, but the creditors seem to think it’s worth continuing the fight and not just liquidating to salvage what they can.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

After a short taxi, we rolled into our gate at AIFA. The terminal is a large building with gates in a straight line. Excluding ground boarding and bus gate possibilities, there are 14 real gates with most on one side and only three of them on the opposite side of the building.

Getting off the aircraft, I stayed on the first level and walked through a long corridor to get to baggage claim and beyond. It was extremely empty that evening.

Departures, however, board from the third level, so I couldn’t really get a full sense of how many people were traveling outbound thanks to the way they route traffic.

My first impression was that this was a building that was far nicer than I expected. It had a ton of natural light from the gates, but even the interior areas like baggage claim were bright and functional.

After baggage claim, there is a long hallway with several taxi operators that I brushed past. (Consider this foreshadowing….) In no time, I was out in the main hallway on the arrivals level.

I did take the escalator up to the second level so I could see the ticketing area, and it was really a beautiful space.

Outside, there is a plaza the separates the terminal from a large parking structure that is currently way-underutilized. There’s also a hotel around there.

The terminal experience was fantastic. There is no other way to put it. I loved this airport so far, but then… I tried to leave it.

I went into the Uber app to request a car, and it asked if I wanted it at the terminal or at Glorieta Militar which is a stop on the northeast side of the airport. I obviously wanted the terminal, but I wasn’t getting a match. So I walked back inside and asked at the info counter what to do.

At this point, the friendly staffer should have told me to just take a cab, but instead, she told me that Uber doesn’t come to the terminal so I just need to take a short bus to Glorieta Militar where I could pick up Uber. Ok.

I walked outside, and it was only about 100 yards before I passed the new Tren Suburbano which will be opening this year and will go straight to the Buenavista station in Mexico City. This would have made all the difference, but it has been delayed, and it wasn’t an option this time.

I kept walking until I found the stop for Mexibús on the far side of the garage. Here, I had to buy a card to pay for the bus. Little did I know that this card only works in the state of México. I learned this the hard way the next morning when I tried to use it in Mexico City — which is not the state — and it didn’t do anything.

I boarded the crowded bus, and it must have been about 20 minutes with multiple stops and several jarring speed bumps before arriving at Glorieta Militar. There was a roundabout attached to a highway where I hailed my Uber. The Uber driver told me once I got in the car that I had to pay the MXN 69 (~$4) toll to get into town. That didn’t sound right to me, but then he said if I showed my boarding pass, they would waive it.

We got to the tollbooth and my boarding pass didn’t work. They said they needed a QR code. I fished that out of my phone while the horns behind me were rapidly firing. I showed it, and… it didn’t work again. They made me pay the toll. Luckily I had just taken out some cash.

After doing research, Uber said you should never have to pay your own toll. I filed a complaint, and they promptly did absolutely nothing about it.

In the end, it took me a couple hours to get into town, more than an hour in the Uber alone. It would have been quicker but certainly more expensive if I had just taken a taxi… and it would have been worth every penny. I could also have taken the Vivabus into town which I thought was only for passengers flying Viva, but I was wrong. Either way, it’s more than an hour drive-time alone if you don’t make any stops. This airport is far away from everything.

I’m hopeful that the Tren Suburbano will make things much better for everyone when it opens this year, shaving the trip down to 43 minutes to Buenavista station, but I will reserve judgment on that for now. Instead, I’ll just say that while AIFA has a great terminal, I wouldn’t use it again without that huge improvement in connectivity into town.

It was a very long evening, but finally, I was in Mexico City for a few days of exploration.

It’s a massive complex with four runways, more than 80 gates, a Boeing (formerly McDonnell Douglas) manufacturing complex, and a national guard base. Or at least, it was at its peak. But St Louis, like many mid-size cities in the middle, has seen its shine tarnish, and the airport has suffered. To bastardize an old saying, they built the church for what they thought was a Wednesday, but it turns out it was built for far more than even Easter Sunday needed.

When the terminal complex was first built in the 1950s, it was a modest affair with three concourses. You’ll see the basic original footprint in black below.

Those concourses were renovated and/or rebuilt in the 1970s/80s when TWA and Ozark really focused on growing their operations at the airport. Concourse A on the upper left was extended while Concourse C on the upper right grew even more. And then Concourse D at the bottom was built. That yellow and black outline was the steady state during the heyday of the airport. TWA bought Ozark in 1986, and the airline kept growing St Louis as its main domestic hub.

But it wasn’t just domestic, TWA grew into a global carrier from St Louis with B747s to multiple cities in Europe. The hub was buzzing, and St Louis became the airline’s headquarters in the early 1990s. This was a red airport through and through… until the change.

In the 1990s, another airline started to grow in St Louis: Southwest. By 1998, the East Terminal was opened in St Louis off the end of Concourse D, creating a home for that airlne with its own check-in and parking areas away from the main terminal. The airport was bursting at the seams.

And then, it all fell apart.

TWA had been wobbly during the 1990s, but the airport somehow didn’t see it. It commissioned a third runway, 11/29, to be built at the northwest part of the airport. That didn’t open until 2006 when it was clear it would never be needed.

By then, TWA had been taken over by American (in 2001) and despite an early effort to keep the hub going, it only shrank from that point. The hub officially closed in 2009, the same year the Air National Guard unit left the airport as well. Suddenly, St Louis was a much quieter airport.

As with other mid-size airports, local flying did pick up to backfill the vacuum left by American when it closed up shop. But the airport had far too much terminal real estate, so it started shutting things down. Today, it looks like this:

Concourses B and D are shut down completely, though Southwest did extend its terminal into the end of the old D a little to make sure it had enough gates for its growing operation.

Meanwhile, the airport’s infrastructure is old and in desperate need of updating. Enter the airport’s modernization plan.

So far, STL has focused on fixing some of its issues around the airfield. It has moved its airfield maintenance and is building a new deicing pad on the west side. There are a variety of other fixes that will help to operate like a smaller airport would.

But it’s the terminal complex itself that needs the most work. The airport entrance off I-70 will be moved a little further west, and the current garage will be replaced with a bigger one alongside a new ground transportation center.

The headhouse itself has to stick around. Unlike other cities, St Louis has a deep love for its headhouse because of its four iconic domes:

This will continue to be where passenger processing is done, but they will be completely remaking the inside of the space. The concourses, however, well… nobody has any love for those. So the new plan is to build a single replacement concourse with 62 gates that will look like this:

The new concourse will be directly connected to the headhouse via a single TSA checkpoint, and it will sit on the footprint of the original 1950s-era concourses, simply spreading further west and east.

When this is done sometime next decade, the East Terminal (now called Terminal 2) will close, and it will be a much more compact design, all this for a $3 billion price tag.

I’m not sure how the phasing will be done here, but it shouldn’t be all that hard. With so much unused space, they can presumably knock down the A gates and rebuild that half of the concourse while relocating the airlines temporarily. That’s the easy part at an airport like this one which grew far too big for even its wildest dreams.

Through the pandemic, Frontier had been pushing to abandon high-cost airports, but that changed in 2024 when it reversed course and went back into LAX while also starting its first JFK service. The schedule data from Cirium tells the tale:

Frontier Departures by Airport Over Time: JFK vs LAX

^{Data via Cirium}

Up until, well, up until right about now, the two airports were growing together, but they have quickly diverged. Why? I think it’s safe to say that a change in CEO from Barry Biffle to Jimmy Dempsey had something to do with that. The timing is far too suspicious for it not to be a factor. We now see two airports on very different trajectories in the Frontier network, but they have similar characteristics.

At JFK, Frontier had started slow with a couple daily flights to San Juan, but it ramped up to the point where it served 10 destinations this winter. Other than San Juan, we had beach destinations in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, all of which are Frontier bases. There was leisure flying to another base in Las Vegas along with connectivity to Frontier bases in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Denver. And then there was the nonstop from JFK to LAX, the only non-base flight at the airport.

After mid-April, JFK will plunge down to only having a single daily flight from Atlanta arriving mid-day and then turning around to head back south. This, I assume, it much more about Frontier’s new-favorite and largest operation in Atlanta than it is about New York.

LAX, meanwhile, is set up differently. It has service to around 15 airports that I break down this way:

• Frontier base flying: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Orlando, Philly (seasonal)
• Short-haul, West Coast: Las Vegas (base), Phoenix (base), Portland (OR), Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle
• Other big cities: Houston/IAH and New York/JFK (just ended)

Houston is a strange outlier, but what’s notable here is that a ton of the West Coast flying is between two non-bases, so it requires routing airplanes from elsewhere just to fund these flights. You’d think that would make this harder to justify than JFK which was almost all flying to bases.

Is this a precursor to an LAX base? I can’t imagine that, considering the high costs of complying with regulation and taxation in California. That doesn’t fit the Frontier model, so instead it will flow airplanes from its bases through LAX to run other routes which seems like a pretty heavy lift.

That thing is, I’m not sure that any of this really fits the Frontier model. New CEO Jimmy Dempsey has indicated he needs to drive down costs, so flying to airports with costs per enplanement well north of $30 like LAX and JFK seems like a mistake.

The end of JFK flying makes all too much sense. Not only is there ample competition on these routes from other airlines, but there are plenty of flights from LaGuardia which is closer in to the city anyway. So this is about serving the people who find JFK more convenient than either LaGuardia or Islip and need a cheaper fare. It’s not hard to see how this doesn’t work very well.

In LA, it is a different story in that sense. LAX is the primary and closest airport for a wide swath of the region, and a big part of that region has the money to travel. It’s Burbank to the northeast or Long Beach to the southeast that bracket the airport, but they aren’t ideal for those on the wealthy westside, including Santa Monica. Still, that doesn’t seem like justification enough.

Perhaps this is all about the recent decision by CEO Jimmy Dempsey to have the airline fly its airplanes more to keep costs down. That means boosting flying on off-peak Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday. So Frontier needs markets that it hopes it can actually fill on those weaker days. LAX certainly has demand, so perhaps that what is making it appealing? I’m really stretching here.

I’m guessing the real appeal here is that Southwest is increasingly expensive, and Frontier thinks that it can make a living doing infrequent service between big West Coast cities with cheap fares. With the Southwest fare canopy being as high as it is, competition is much weaker on the West Coast than on the other side of the country. So perhaps there’s a chance that Frontier can make money even with that enormous airport cost? Probably not. Frontier’s historical fares are still pretty low there.

To add a cherry on top, Frontier passengers have a terrible LAX experience since they have to check in at Terminal 1.5 and then take a bus to the midfield concourse gates. That’s most annoying when your flight is only an hour on these short-haul runs.

So why is Frontier still trying to make a go of things at LAX? I’m running out of ideas.

Long-time readers know we stopped streaming a couple years ago, but now we aren’t even doing the wrap-up video either. We want everyone to feel free to have fun, and that means not constantly being worried about whether you might show up in a video. So, no video, but that won’t stop me from sharing all of tonight’s winners. Here’s the full list.

Sexiest New Route – Short-Haul presented by Embraer

Avianca took home the prize for its new nonstop from Quito to San Cristóbal in the Galapagos. Most people fly into Baltra, but there are flights to San Cristóbal (SCY) from Guayaquil. Now Quito joins the party.

Route Victory Award

We had two Route Victory Awards this year for the route that has been a success. First up is Breeze from Provo to Orange County which is not only the airline’s only route to consistently fly more than once a day, but it’s also raking in the dough despite competition from Allegiant.

Calculated Risk Award

Who took a risk that we thought was well-calculated and has a good chance of success? This year, Alaska won for shifting focus from LAX and San Francisco more toward Portland (OR) and San Diego.

Sexiest New Route – Long-Haul presented by Airbus

First-time attendee Air Canada took home the gold for its flight from Montréal to Palma de Mallorca. It doesn’t get much sexier than that, frankly.

La Asociación Nueva Más Prometedora

We took our usual Most Promising New Partnership award and created one specifically for Latin America. Who won? Naturally it was the Viva and Volaris merger that we find most promising indeed.

Most Promising New Partnership presented by Pittsburgh International Airport

And what about in the US and Canada? There were some good options, but it’s hard to pass up the new JetBlue and United interline and loyalty agreement.

Best Aircraft-Enabled Opportunity

We used to say that this was focused on new aircraft technology enabling a new route, but it doesn’t have to be new. (After all, we had a CRJ-700 route nominated this year.) But the winner? It was WestJet’s new Toronto – Cardiff route operated by the B737-8 MAX.

Best Airport Partner

Airlines nominate their favorite airport partners for this award, and we narrow it down to three finalists and then do the impossible task of choosing the winner. This year, Kristen Behm from Chattanooga won, but I have to also mention Nate Lavin from Salt Lake City and Chris Hedlin from Calgary as the other two nominees.

Route Victory Award

I told you we had two route victory awards this year, and American won this one for Phoenix to Carlsbad. That has been quite a challenge from the beginning to get approvals and get past opposition to flights here. But it’s doing well for American, and it is hoping to grow more, community-willing.

Best New Destination

What’s the best new destination that didn’t have service to the US or Canada in recent times? United won this one with the addition of Santiago de Compostela to the airline’s network from Newark.

Irving Tague Secondary Airport Award presented by Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport

Who is Irving Tague? He was one of the founders of Midway Airlines, the first post-deregulation carrier to find gold in a secondary airport — Chicago Midway. This awards the airline with the biggest growth in secondary airports last year. In the US, it was Allegiant, in Canada it was Porter, and then in México it was Viva.

La Victoria de la Red

This is our network victory award — for success more broadly than just on a single route — in Latin America. Volaris won this award for its successful growth in Morelia where it now has more than 70 percent of seats. It has grown the market beyond the traditional US visiting-friends-and-relatives traffic.

Network Victory Award presented by Boeing

And what about that same award in the US and Canada? It goes to Delta for its performance in LaGuardia. Capacity may be up, but so are unit revenues at a time when the rest of the system is down. Delta keeps growing its advantage over number two American, and it is gaining local traffic.

Best Schedule Design

Finally, the schedulers can get some love too. Southwest won the award for the shifting of schedules in Chicago/Midway, Denver, Nashville, and St Louis to finally act more like hubs.

Lifetime Elite Status presented by Cirium

We have given away our first-ever lifetime achievement award which we are calling Lifetime Elite. This goes to John Kirby who recently retired as VP of network at Spirit. After eight airlines in his 40 year career, John deserves a break, and we were happy to have him with us this year to celebrate what he’s done.

Most Clever Flight Number presented by John Glenn Columbus International Airport

One of our favorite awards goes to Alaska Airlines this year for using flights 49 and 50 to fly between the 49th and 50th states. Those are two hugely important markets for the airline, so we’re glad to see a little flight number love.

La Red Más Mejorada

The big two awards for the night honor the airline with the most improved network. After all, it doesn’t matter what you start with; it matters what you do with it. And this year in the Latin American division, it’s Viva that gets the win for its big growth throughout its home country, including at Mexico City’s new secondary AIFA airport.

Most Improved Network presented by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

And for the US and Canada? It was Alaska Airlines taking the win thanks to its integration with Hawaiian, the development of its long-haul hub in Seattle, and the shift to grow Portland and San Diego

And that is a wrap from Phoenix.

After rushing out from the bus gate off my Viva flight into Puerto Vallarta’s airport, through baggage claim, upstairs from ticketing, and through security… I had a little time to kill and took a deep breath. The only real downside to this inability to connect airside in PVR was that I had to throw my water bottle away at security. So, I went over to a store and bought another one in preparation for flying Mexicana and its brand-new Embraer E2.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

I’ve never used the domestic concourse at Puerto Vallarta before, but gates 1-6 look a whole lot different than the other concourse. This one is narrower and lacks a remotely acceptable number of seats. Also, only half the gates have jet bridges. The narrow area is packed with locals who appear used to this, but I wasn’t having it.

I walked around since the plane hadn’t even shown up yet, and that’s when I saw a lounge. Sure enough, I was able to use Priority Pass to get in there. I’ve never used that credit card benefit before, nor do I usually care to. The small space was jam-packed and I was lucky to find a seat. I had a drink and a medicore ham sandwich that actually hit the spot just fine.

Then I saw our sexy airplane arrive with that old-school logo and green tail. That’s when I left to go to the gate. My MXN 1248.54 (~$69.81) ticket price included a seat assignment by choice, and I had chosen 17D not actually thinking it through. I went up to the agent to ask if I could switch to an A seat, because I was thinking we’d have a better view on that side. He gave me a reprinted boarding pass where he crossed out 17D and wrote in 7D, which you may have surmised is not an A seat.

He said there were no A seats available, but I got the free move toward the front, so… ok?

I walked upstairs to go to the bathroom, and when I came back they were boarding. There were three agents standing there. One had printed out new boarding passes for everyone on the flight. He handed them the new pass and then they gave it to one of the next two agents about 5 feet away. Why? I was thinking maybe they use those boarding pass stubs to actually keep track of who is on the airplane? Or maybe this is just a government jobs program. Actually, I think we know Mexicana is a government jobs program.

When I walked back up, I heard them say they were boarding group D. I was in C, so I walked to the agent, but apparently C wasn’t boarding. B and D were boarding, but C was not. If you thought Southwest’s old boarding process was confusing, I’ve got a new winner.

When C was eventually called, I walked down the steamy, glass-lined jet bridge and walked onboard.

Mexicana 1443
January 12, 2026

From Puerto Vallarta
➤ Scheduled Departure: 430p
➤ Actual Departure: 436p
➤ From Gate: 6
➤ Wheels Up: 449p
➤ From Runway: 22

To Mexico City/AIFA
➤ Wheels Down: 550p
➤ On Runway: 22C
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 555p
➤ Actual Arrival: 556p
➤ At Gate: 108

Aircraft
➤ Type: Embraer E195-E2
➤ Delivered: November 14, 2025
➤ Registered: XA-MXD, msn 19020207
➤ Livery: Green and Gold Sexiness

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 7D
➤ Load: 57/132
➤ Flight Time: 1h01m

This brand new airplane looked immaculate, as you’d hope.

It was my first time flying on an E2, though I had seen the inside before. It is very, very long. Fortunately, I didn’t have far to go, so I took my seat 7D and then watched as nobody sat next to me. I should note that 8A and a bunch of other As were also wide open the entire flight, but… whatever. Legroom was good, and they even put power onboard.

When the door closed, we were again pretty empty.

Announcements came in both Spanish and English, but it seemed pretty clear that English announcements were shorter and maybe leaving something out. We taxied out past the new PVR terminal which is under construction and then lined up for departure.

3, 2, 1… liftoff. We rocketed into the sky. Those E2s seem to have some really good power on them as we climbed fast to clear those mountains east of town with their slightly-threatening clouds perched on top.

These airplanes are also very quiet. Maybe these are just military pilots doing military things, but it was a great display of power. Within 13 minutes, we were already at 35,000 feet.

The flight attendants came through selling stuff, and I couldn’t help but notice the fun design on their uniforms. Yes, I asked before I took this photo, because that would have been rather awkward otherwise.

I didn’t buy anything, but the people in front of me must have spent at least 5 minutes trying to decide what to purchase. For some reason, the flight attendants just stood there politely waiting. It’s a good thing it was such a light load or they never would have been able to help everyone.

It’s a short hop to Mexico City at just over an hour, so we weren’t at cruise for long. As we started our descent, the flight attendants came through giving out coffee. I declined since I don’t like coffee, but the poor flight attendant thought I just didn’t want to pay. She told me it was free, but I still said no. This seemed like a strange perk considering she had to come back to collect shortly after handing the coffee out anyway.

We approached from the north, so I actually didn’t miss any kind of view of Mexico City being on the D side. Then again, it was mostly cloudy, so I really didn’t miss anything anyway. As we got close, the flight attendants came through and told me I had to take my headphones off. That’s a new one.

After flying in over farmland and some industrial-looking property for some time, we planted down on the runway at AIFA. It was a short taxi back to the terminal, but oh my is that airport a looker. They built quite a palace there, and we’ll talk about that in the next post.

Mexicana was fine, but the real star of the show was the Embraer E2.

I was now past immigration and security, comfortably walking around the Tijuana airport for my domestic flight. I still had some time to kill before Viva would kick off the adventure in style with a very-nice ride on a pretty-empty airplane. The terminal has two concourses, both somewhat stubby with only 5 jet bridges each. My flight was on the first one, so I didn’t have far to walk. That means I could explore a little.

• Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
• Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
• Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
• Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
• The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
• Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
• Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
• Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
• Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
• TAR Was a Wild Ride
• Volaris, the Purest ULCC

I don’t know much about the origin of the Tijuana terminal, but it looks like it’s had some work done recently. It was open and airy with a lot of local stores that you may never have heard of like Panda Express, Starbucks, Subway, and Shake Shack.

My gate was further down, so I just grabbed a seat toward the base of the concourse and checked email using the free wifi, still having an hour until my flight. I then got up, bought a bottle of water, and meandered slowly to my gate.

I was at gate 18 which didn’t appear to actually exist. Toward the end of the concourse, I had to go downstairs where there were a couple of gates with ground boarding. This lower level had low ceilings, was dark, had no concessions, and it smelled. It’s almost like they just built a nice and new airport on top of the crappy old one.

They began boarding, and since I had purchased a Light fare for $135.38 that was also refundable (not a lesser Zero fare), I was in group 6. This was one of the slowest boarding processes I’ve ever seen. The agents kept getting distracted by people walking in from the ramp. I had no idea what was going on, but this didn’t seem like the normal boarding process. Eventually, I got my boarding pass scanned and walked outside. We then had to go down a walkway all the way toward the base of the concourse where our plane was wedged in. I guess they couldn’t fit a jet bridge, but they could fit an airplane. Also, there are no ramps to be found, so I hope nobody needed a wheelchair. I walked up the stairs and on to the plane.

Viva 5084
January 12, 2026

From Tijuana
➤ Scheduled Departure: 1045a
➤ Actual Departure: 1037a
➤ From Gate: 18
➤ Wheels Up: 1049a
➤ From Runway: 09

To Puerto Vallarta
➤ Wheels Down: 259p
➤ On Runway: 22
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 330p
➤ Actual Arrival: 307p
➤ At Gate: Bus gate

Aircraft
➤ Type: Airbus A320-232
➤ Delivered: July 26, 2013 to Tigerair
➤ Registered: XA-VDT, msn 5697
➤ Livery: 2024 Green Heart livery

Flight
➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 10A
➤ Load: ~40% Full
➤ Flight Time: 2h10m

This was a very special airplane. When I looked the night before, I found that the registration was blocked from flight tracking services. It turns out that the airplane only joined the fleet in October after a long career with Tigerair and Scoot. Previously, this registration was used by a Gulfstream, and I guess Viva never unblocked it. Sadly, it was indeed an A320 and not a G550 that I boarded.

The airplane looked brand new on the inside with plain leather seats that had a recline button which was disabled, so they were pretty spartan as expected. I was surprised, however, to see that Viva has an inflight magazine. You don’t see those often anymore, especially on a low-cost carrier.

It was a very load light up front where you had to pay more for seat assignments — I paid to make sure I could get off quickly if my Mexicana connection ended up being really tight — but I didn’t pay for extra legroom. It was standard, and it was perfectly fine. The best part was that since I was in a more sparsely populated part of the airplane, I ended up with a coach flat bed and nobody near me. Sweet.

We pushed back a little early with all announcements in both Spanish and English. Then it was time for my favorite pasttime when flying in México… playing “spot the ancient aircraft.” In Tijuana there are a fair number of Aero California DC-9s. Aero California, as you may or may not know, went bust in 2008.

It was a very quick taxi out to the runway before we climbed into the clear yet bouncy morning sky. The pilots curiously never turned the seatbelt sign off, but when we hit a rough patch, they turned it on… doubly? I don’t know, but I could hear the chime. Then again, I heard a lot of chimes since someone kept dinging what I assume was a flight attendant call button but could have been something else. It happened regularly throughout the flight.

The flight attendants came through selling their goods, but I didn’t need anything. I just read a book and looked out the window as we passed what is still on rare occasion the point where the Colorado River flows into the Sea of Cortés.

It clouded up as we went further down, but it cleared as we approached the tropical cloud formations off Puerto Vallarta.

We approached from the north and then landed nice and early before… pulling up to a bus gate.

Fortunately with such a light load, nobody had to wait long. When we got dumped off, I asked where I could catch a connection. They told me to walk through the main door with everyone else. Unfortunately, that just went into baggage claim, and there was no way for me to stay airside.

That combined with the bus gate made me very nervous, but then I remembered we had landed so early that I’d be ok. I exited with everyone else and then went back upstairs to go through the security checkpoint again. It wasn’t very crowded, and by the time I was on the other side, I still had time to kill before my Mexicana ride.

Overall I enjoyed my Viva ride. The seats were perfectly fine for a relatively short flight, and the price was right to match.