Cranky Flier

The merger between Allegiant and Sun Country has been one of the quietest I’ve seen. Perhaps it’s because they’re both small. Or maybe it’s that they just don’t have any overlap. It could be that there was just no drama with the feds in the process. Or it’s possibly because they have a limited presence in all the major media markets. Regardless, the merger is done, and now we’re all just waiting to see how the integration progresses. We finally hav

Judging by the number of emails I’ve received, I know a lot of you are champing at the bit to get your RSVPs in for Cranky Dorkfest on September 19. I’m happy to say that day has now arrived. If you want to do the morning ramp visit and/or be entered into the giveaway, you have to RSVP. If you don’t care about that stuff, well, just show up! All these details will be posted on the main Cranky Dorkfest page. YOU MUST RSVP by the end of the day on Thursday, September 10

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about aircraft innovation and how different airlines have reacted to new developments in different ways, but I was having trouble figuring out how to put this into something coherent. I had plenty of data thanks to SkyGo and Cirium schedules, but it took collaborating with Claude on ideas before I settled on a good way to display it. Artificial intelligence (AI) as a thought partner is pretty useful in that it helps me to crystalize my ideas into something

We’ve talked about why the SkyLink people mover at LAX is so important, and exactly what it will look like. But as nice is it is to talk about that, it’s time to get down and dirty in the mud. We have a lawsuit filed by the consortium of contractors on this project, LINXS, against the City of Los Angeles which runs LAX through Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). So now we get look under the hood and see what’s going on. This lawsuit has been in the works for a long time.

American Airlines CEO lays out his vision to close a more than $3 billion profit gap – CNBC There seems to be a bit of a thawing in the Metroplex. American is trying to open up a little bit more to media to talk about an actual plan, and that includes making CEO Robert Isom available to talk about his vision, as he did with CNBC’s Leslie Josephs. I don’t think I’d call what she got from him a true vision. He effectively said the airline wants to be premium like Delta

JetBlue Wins LGA Slot Auction JetBlue Airways emerged as the winner for Spirit’s former slots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. It paid $58.5 million for the right to operate up to 12 more daily roundtrips flights, outbidding Frontier by $1 million. The ink isn’t dry on the deal yet, and JetBlue is already considering a move to the now-deserted Marine Air Terminal at the airport. The historic terminal is without a human tenant at the moment as Spirit was its lone carrier unti

The long-awaited people mover at Los Angeles International Airport has been delayed, delayed, and delayed again. It was originally supposed to open in March 2023, and at last check, the posted date is now October 2026. That probably won’t happen either. This isn’t just your regular “construction project has delays” kind of issue. It has devolved into a terrible, vicious battle between the airport — Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) — and LINXS, a group of con

Who’s excited for a special Wednesday post? Actually, all of you who don’t care about Hawaiʻi should be. I was going to just do this on my regular Thursday, but I figured some of you would kill me if I had another entire week dedicated to the islands. So, enjoy today, and then there will be a non-Hawaiʻi post as usual tomorrow. Hawaiian officially announced yesterday that it will replace its B717 fleet with the B737-800 as first reported by The Air Current, and as we discuss

The Hawaiian word hoʻokipa means hospitality, and it is at the root of Hawaiian culture. That is one of the reasons why for many years Hawaiian continued to hand out free meals onboard — it’s just how you would treat someone in the islands when they entered your home. The free meals are gone, and I was worried that would be a problem. Thanks to a very senior and spectacularly-good crew along with the rest of the service, I can confirm it’s really not a problem at all. Once a

Southwest filed its spring break schedule last week, extending its booking window from ending March 10 to April 5. This was a big schedule update, and there is a lot to parse. But one thing that stood out to me right away was the further downsizing of the interisland operation in Hawaiʻi. In the summer of 2023, Southwest’s interisland operation peaked with 64 daily flights between the islands. That had dropped to 50 in April 2025, where it remained until this new schedule for next March

United Reports $805 Million Profit United Airlines’s Q2 earnings were released Wednesday after the close of the market, and the carrier earned a profit of $805 million on $17.7 billion in gross revenue. The revenue figure is a 16% jump from last year’s Q2 but profit dropped more than 17% primarily due to rising fuel costs but also from extensive miscellaneous costs the airline simply listed under “Newark sucks” on its report. Its total unit revenue (TRASM) jumped 12

Earnings season has officially begun with, as always, Delta kicking off festivities late last week and then United just yesterday releasing its numbers. The airlines unsurprisingly did very well, but the results and more importantly, forward-looking guidance, show that we may have finally seen a structural shift. Airfares are up, and I don’t imagine they’ll be going back down anytime soon. On the surface, it looks like Delta is outperforming with an operating margin of 9.4 percent

It’s time for another post about the 1980s thanks to SkyGo’s schedule data, but this one actually begins much earlier. Today I want to talk about Pan Am, but more specifically, Pan Am’s famed Internal German Service (IGS). Why am I writing about this? Well, I was busy playing around looking at the data when I came across something that surprised me. In 1980, Pan Am had more domestic flights in West Germany than it did in the US. Just let that sink in. Pan Am Departures

To celebrate Hawaiian’s official entry into oneworld, the airline decided to have a media event in Honolulu to unveil its new oneworld-liveried airplane, showcase some food, and set up some interviews. It’s been awhile since I last did an event with the airline so I decided to take them up on the quick two-day trip. Not only did I find my time on the ground useful, but the flights were as well. Today, let’s talk about the way out when an era came to an end. [Hawaiian provide

Record heat, crowds drive offseason boom in international travel – CNBC Shoulder season travel is doing well, and that means good news for everyone. The longer an airline can justify a long-haul route during the year, the more airplanes it can justify buying. I chatted with Leslie Josephs about it. This week Brian and I answered one of YOUR questions… is there room for an all-premium airline? It was actually Outer Space Guy who asked the question here, and we turned it i

Delta Q2 Profit Nears $2 Billion, Revenue Nears $20 Billion Revenue continued on its record trajectory for Delta as the carrier boasted a $19.8 billion gross revenue for Q2, a whopping 19% increase from last year. But profit fell by a quarter, from $2.1 to $1.6 billion as the carrier dealt with climbing costs for both fuel and Biscoffs. Delta’s fuel costs jumped 66% at the pump, paying $3.66 per gallon, compared to just $2.21 a year ago. While fuel prices have eased in the last several

Though my focus is usually on airlines, I do occasionally dive into the world of aircraft manufacturing. And there is no manufacturer I find more fun to follow than JetZero. Sure, it helps that the company is based right here in Long Beach, but it’s a large aircraft concept that has promise, something I can’t say about much else outside of Boeing and Airbus. Recently, the company held its annual media day, and I was there to see what’s new. The answer? Surprisingly little. W

We’ve already talked about American’s operational issues, but today I’m looking at you, Delta. American hasn’t been a star performer for ages, but Delta? Delta has been the king for years. That crown appears to have some tarnish on it these days. You may have heard about the Delta pilots setting up a website to help travelers deal with disruption. This is nothing but a negotiating ploy. The contract becomes amendable later this year, and they are just starting to chirp

Avelo has made it clear that its newfound focus is on alternate airports in areas with good-sized population, and so far it has found New Haven, Lakeland (FL), Concord (NC), and Wilmington (DE). We had already learned number five would be McKinney (TX), and now schedules are loaded. For those who don’t know how the Metroplex is structured, You have Fort Worth to the west and Dallas to the east. When it opened, Dallas/Fort Worth was planted in the middle as an airport to serve the whole

Predictions for the future of aviation as Cruising Altitude departs – USA Today Zach Wichter is moving on from USA Today (best of luck, Zach!) and so he did a final column looking into the future. I gave my own take. Airlines embrace stopover itineraries in Hawaii, Panama and beyond – Travel Weekly Why don’t more US airlines have stopover programs the way airlines like Icelandair do? It’s just not that kind of market, I told Travel Weekly.