FILE: A sign reading, 'masks required in this area,' is seen as travelers prepare to check-in for their Delta Airlines flight at the Miami International Airport on February 01, 2021.
Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesIn this week’s news roundup, the FAA is extending its zero-tolerance policy for passenger misbehavior; airline execs see light at the end of the tunnel; Alaska drops Oakland-Hawaii service; American and United gear up for improved SFO/LAX-New York service; United comes back to Santa Rosa; Delta adds Montana routes, and extends new perks for SkyMiles elites on Canada’s WestJet; United boosts Latin America frequencies; Iceland opens up to vaccinated visitors from the U.S., and the Biden Administration might ease international travel restrictions in the spring; most Americans say unvaccinated individuals shouldn’t be allowed to fly; White House won’t get involved in creating a COVID health passport; American resumes some suspended Europe routes; TSA PreCheck adds some South American carriers; and a new low-cost European carrier could replace Norwegian on transatlantic routes.
The Federal Aviation Administration put air travelers on notice last week that its new crackdown on unruly or disruptive in-flight behavior is going to continue past March 31, when it had been scheduled to end. In some recently publicized cases, the FAA has imposed fines amounting to tens of thousands of dollars on passengers who refused to wear masks, got drunk, disobeyed flight attendants, and even hit them. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said last week that he is extending the agency’s “zero tolerance” policy, directing the FAA’s safety inspectors and attorneys “to take strong enforcement action against any passenger who disrupts or threatens the safety of a flight,” with penalties ranging from fines to jail time.
“The number of cases we’re seeing is still far too high, and it tells us urgent action continues to be required,” Dickson said. More than 500 cases of unruly passengers have been reported by airlines since the beginning of the year, some of them requiring flights to make unscheduled landings. The FAA issued its zero-tolerance policy in January after flight attendants reported several cases of unruly passengers on flights to and from Washington D.C. just before and after the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. The policy is now expected to remain in effect at least as long as the FAA continues to require all passengers to wear a mask.
The agency’s most recent enforcement actions, announced last week, both stemmed from incidents aboard JetBlue flights to the Caribbean in December. The agency is seeking a $20,000 fine from a passenger who repeatedly ignored directions to wear a mask and remain seated, shoved a flight attendant, and shouted obscenities at her, the FAA said. That flight was diverted back to Boston. In the other case, the FAA imposed a $12,500 fine on a passenger who refused to keep a mask on and kept drinking from his own bottle of alcohol after the crew demanded he turn it over. He also shouted profanities at flight attendants “and became more and more uncooperative and agitated,” the FAA said.
U.S. airline executives speaking at an investment conference last week said their business is showing definite signs of recovery, suggesting the pandemic’s worst effects on air travel might have bottomed out. While passenger numbers are currently at post-pandemic highs due to spring break trips, the executives said the longer-term outlook is also positive based on advance bookings and the rising numbers of COVID-vaccinated Americans. Officials from United, Delta and Alaska Airlines said they expect to start breaking even or achieve positive cash flow this spring. Most of the airlines’ optimism is due to rising numbers of domestic leisure travelers, and that’s where carriers are focusing their revival of suspended service and addition of new routes.
That optimism isn’t universal, however. As SFGATE reported last week, Alaska Airlines decided to eliminate Hawaii service from Oakland International to Honolulu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island effective May 21. Those routes are currently suspended but were expected to resume on that date. The decision suggests that airlines may have gone a bit overboard in their rush to revive Hawaii flights from the Bay Area after the islands reopened last fall to tourists who had negative COVID test results. But Alaska Airlines travelers still have options as the carrier continues to fly to the islands from San Jose and San Francisco International. The Oakland-Hawaii market continues to be served by Southwest and Hawaiian Airlines.
While the airlines’ current focus is on leisure routes, there are also some positive signs for prime business routes between New York and San Francisco/Los Angeles. American Airlines is reportedly planning to put its Airbus A321T aircraft back into service on April 2 for three daily SFO-New York JFK flights and as many as seven a day between LAX-JFK. The A321Ts are configured especially for those markets, offering both first class and business class with lie-flat seats as well as a large number of extra-legroom seats in the economy cabin. American had been using those aircraft exclusively on the transcontinental routes before the pandemic but replaced them with 777s as it sharply reduced its schedules. American also said last week it will operate a new seasonal transcontinental route to southern California May 6-Aug. 16, starting daily flights between Ontario and its Charlotte hub.
Meanwhile, it looks like United is finally moving ahead with its plan to introduce service on March 28 between SFO-New York JFK and LAX-JFK, starting with one daily flight in each market. The carrier had announced it would begin the service Feb. 1 but delayed it for a month and then delayed it again. United pulled out of JFK five years ago when it consolidated New York-area service into its Newark hub. It will use 767-300s with Polaris business class, premium economy, extra-legroom Economy Plus and regular coach seating.
United will also resume its suspended service at Sonoma County’s Charles M. Schulz Airport in Santa Rosa this spring. Current plans call for United to start flying to Santa Rosa from San Francisco International on June 4 and from Denver on June 3. The Santa Rosa airport is currently served by American and Alaska Airlines.
A couple of weeks ago, we reported that several airlines hungry for leisure travelers are adding routes to Montana this spring and summer, and now Delta is jumping on that bandwagon. The carrier said it will introduce daily flights to Bozeman (a gateway to Yellowstone National Park) from Los Angeles May 5 and from Seattle May 28, as well as new service to Bozeman from New York JFK and Detroit also starting in May. Delta will also begin daily flights from LAX to Kalispell (FCA), the gateway for Glacier National Park, on May 28 and weekend flights to FCA from Seattle and Atlanta beginning May 29. Missoula, Mont. will get new weekend Delta service from LAX as of May 8. Also launching at the end of May is new daily Delta service to Jackson Hole, Wyo., from LAX, Atlanta and Minneapolis/St. Paul, and weekend flights from Seattle. In other markets, the airline said it will introduce weekend service between Seattle and Reno/Tahoe on May 8 and weekly Saturday service between Seattle and Fresno starting May 29. In addition, Delta is beefing up its Alaska service for the summer, including new weekend flights to Anchorage from LAX beginning May 28, new daily service to Anchorage and Fairbanks from Salt Lake City as of May 5, and increased frequencies of up to seven flights a day to Anchorage from Seattle starting June 19.
Although travel between the U.S. and Canada remains severely restricted, Delta and its Canadian partner WestJet last week introduced reciprocal benefits for elite-level members of their loyalty programs, an expansion of the loyalty and code-sharing partnership they have had in place since 2014. “Subject to the customer’s status or tier, loyalty customers will now receive priority boarding and check-in, lounge access, preferred seats with the seat selection fee waived and additional checked baggage allowance with priority drop-off and handling through the journey. Loyalty customers can also take advantage of priority security check at airports where the service is available,” Delta said.
United Airlines’ continuing focus on leisure destinations will bring increased frequencies to destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean this summer. From the west coast, United will add more frequencies on Mexico routes from San Francisco and Los Angeles to San Jose del Cabo, and from LAX to Puerto Vallarta. The carrier will also lay on extra flights from LAX to San Salvador, El Salvador and to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. United plans similar increases to the region from its hubs at Chicago O’Hare, Newark, Denver and Washington Dulles.
As the number of COVID vaccinations keeps rising, tourism-dependent nations are more open to removing entry restrictions for travelers who got their shots. The latest example is Iceland, which last week started to welcome vaccinated travelers from the U.S. and the U.K. without any additional testing or quarantine requirements. The country had already been accepting visitors from many European nations. Arriving travelers must show proof they’ve been inoculated with a vaccine approved by the World Health Organization or the European Medicines Agency, which includes the vaccine varieties distributed in the U.S.
We reported recently that the U.K. has suggested it could begin to reopen to international travelers by mid-May, and the U.S. is now said to be looking at a similar policy change. According to a report on CNBC that cites anonymous government sources, the Biden Administration is considering a relaxation of current restrictions in mid-May on international inbound travel from the U.K., Europe and Brazil, as well as a reopening of land borders with Canada and Mexico. Of course, it all depends on the progression of the pandemic and the continuing expansion of COVID vaccinations.
The airline and travel industries have been urging the U.S. government not to require COVID vaccinations as a prerequisite for travel – especially domestic travel – even as some foreign nations are looking to do so for international arrivals. However, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests that most Americans don’t agree. According to that poll, 62% of Americans said people shouldn’t be allowed to travel by air if they haven’t been vaccinated against COVID, and 72% said they would like to know if the people around them have been vaccinated. Fifty-six percent said those without vaccinations shouldn’t be allowed to go back to work in their offices, and 55% want them banned from gyms, movie theaters and concerts.
U.S. airlines have also urged the federal government to take the lead in establishing a universally accepted form of travel passport that would prove an individual has been vaccinated, but a White House official said last week that the Biden administration isn’t interested in taking on that role. Instead, he said it should be handled by the private sector, as long as the health data is secure, the passport is free, and it is available in both digital and paper forms. A number of private sector efforts are already under way to provide digital vaccination and/or testing verification, including the International Air Transport Assn’s Travel Pass, the VeriFLY app accepted by American Airlines and Alaska Airlines for international travelers, and the CommonPass travel health app, which JetBlue has just started testing for travelers from Boston to Aruba. Across the Atlantic, the European Union last week unveiled plans to create a new Digital Green Certificate in both a digital and paper format that E.U. citizens could use as proof of a COVID vaccination for unrestricted travel anywhere within the bloc
As the likelihood increases that restrictions on international travel might begin to ease this summer, American Airlines will increase its operations to Europe in the weeks ahead. The airline has already announced a March 30 start for new Seattle-London Heathrow flights (a key part of AA’s growing partnership with Alaska Airlines). But it also plans to resume service on several suspended transatlantic routes at the end of March or beginning of April, including Los Angeles-London Heathrow, Miami-Barcelona, Miami-London, Philadelphia-Dublin, Philadelphia-London, Dallas/Ft. Worth-Rome, S+DFW-Madrid, New York JFK-Paris, and JFK-Milan.
The Transportation Security Administration said last week it has expanded its PreCheck trusted traveler screening program to include more foreign airlines. Carriers newly added to the program include LATAM Airlines Group, Brazil’s TAM, LAN Peru, and LATAM Ecuador, as well as Air Choice One, a small Midwestern carrier based in St. Louis.
Travelers looking for a low-cost carrier to Europe were disappointed in January when Norwegian Air Shuttle said it had decided to eliminate its extensive transatlantic network and focus on intra-European routes as it struggles with a financial reorganization. But now two former top executives of Norwegian are planning to create another low-cost airline that could step into those abandoned markets. The new carrier, called Norse Atlantic Airways, reportedly hopes to lease more than 20 Boeing 787s formerly operated by Norwegian, and while it hasn’t yet revealed its route plans, industry observers are betting that it will focus on transatlantic service to the U.S. Norse Atlantic reportedly hopes to start flying by the end of this year, when it anticipates current COVID-based travel restrictions could be largely ended.
Jim Glab is a freelance travel writer.
