In the latest airline news, Southwest unveils a major expansion of Hawaii service; the CDC relaxes mask rules, but not for airline passengers; United delays its new San Francisco-Bangalore route; Alaska adds Belize to its route map; Qantas pushes back its resumption of long-haul flights once again; new routes are coming to Vietnam, Senegal and Turkey; Alaska and Frontier add California flights; United brings back some in-flight amenities; the U.K. starts to open up to international travelers, but not from the U.S.; the CDC allows self-administered COVID tests, and United introduces one for its customers.
Southwest Airlines is planning a big expansion of its Hawaii operations this summer, adding routes from more mainland cities and increasing service from existing gateways, including San Jose and Oakland. With its pre-pandemic Hawaii network largely rebuilt, the carrier is clearly seeing lots of pent-up demand for trips to the islands, especially as that state prepares to exempt COVID-vaccinated individuals from its current testing and quarantine requirements sometime this summer.
From the Bay Area, Southwest said it will increase service between San Jose and Maui to two flights a day starting June 6 and will operate three flights a day between Oakland and Honolulu from June 6 through Sept. 6. But the bigger news is the carrier’s plan to start flying to the islands from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. At LAX, Southwest will introduce one daily flight to Honolulu on June 6, increasing to two a day June 27. The LAX schedule also includes three daily flights to Maui beginning June 6, along with one daily flight to Kona and one to Kauai, both starting June 27.
New Las Vegas service will include two flights a day to Honolulu as of June 6 and two to Maui beginning June 27, followed in early September by daily flights to Kona and Kauai. At Phoenix, Southwest will kick off flights to Honolulu and Kauai on June 27, followed by service to Kona and Lihue Sept. 7. Elsewhere in California, Southwest will supplement its current San Diego-Honolulu service with new routes from SAN to Maui, Kauai and Kona beginning in June, and will increase its Long Beach-Honolulu schedule to two flights a day June 27-Sept. 6.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) caused quite a stir last week when it said individuals fully vaccinated against COVID no longer need to wear face masks whether they’re indoors or outdoors. However, that new guidance does not apply to air travelers. The CDC and the Federal Aviation Administration continue to require travelers to wear masks on planes, at airports, and on all other forms of public transportation, whether they’re vaccinated or not. Airlines have their own mask requirements, and those haven’t changed either. Passengers’ refusal to mask up has been one of the biggest headaches for airlines and the FAA in recent months, and they are not putting up with it. According to a CBS News tally, over the past year U.S. airlines have banned more than 4,000 individuals from future travel for violating mask requirements and other unruly behavior. Earlier this year, the FAA got in on the party with its own “zero tolerance” policy for people acting up in-flight, and it continues to levy huge fines on the worst offenders. Last week, the agency handed down two more big levies against miscreants, both from JetBlue flights. One passenger was fined $10,500 for a facemask violation and for coughing and blowing his nose into a blanket. The other drew a $9,000 penalty for creating a disturbance during boarding. “He yelled, slammed overhead bins, and shouted profanities at the cabin crew, including threatening to harass a flight attendant during the entire flight,” the FAA said, and he was met by cops as he was thrown off the plane.
For months, United Airlines has been heralding its planned new non-stop route from San Francisco International to Bangalore, India, but now those plans are on hold. The airline had scheduled a May 27 launch for the new service – which would be the longest route in United’s system at 8,701 miles – but that was before the U.S. government banned inbound travel from India earlier this month due to the raging surge of coronavirus in that country. Now United is looking at an Aug. 1 start for the route, depending on how the COVID situation unfolds. (Air India started flying the same SFO-Bangalore route in January, although it has cut back flight frequencies.)
It’s not just San Francisco: United also plans to suspend its Chicago-Delhi flights on June 1 continuing at least into July, although it will maintain service from SFO to Delhi and from Newark to Delhi and Mumbai. Although the U.S. now bans travel from India, it allows U.S. citizens there to return home, and it permits Indians in the U.S. to do the same. American Airlines recently announced plans to begin a new route from New York JFK to Delhi, but that won’t begin until October.
In other international news, Alaska Airlines said it plans to add Belize City, Belize to its route map in the weeks ahead, although it didn’t say when, or where it will fly from – just that the new flights will operate “from the west coast.” The company said it will reveal details when ticket sales begin in early June. Alaska also announced plans for fleet expansion in the next few years, exercising options with Boeing to add nine more 737-9 MAX aircraft in 2023 and another four in 2024. Alaska will also acquire another 17 Embraer 175 jets in 2022 and 2023 to be operated by its Horizon Air and SkyWest regional affiliates. “Alaska expects domestic travel to return to pre-COVID levels by the summer of 2022, which will require more aircraft,” the company said.
Elsewhere, Qantas has once again pushed back the date when it expects to resume long-haul flying, including to the U.S. It was originally targeting sometime this summer, then postponed the date until Oct. 31, and now Qantas says it won’t start to bring back significant international operations until late December. Why? “The Federal Government has revised its anticipated timeline for the completion of Australia’s vaccine rollout to end-2021 and its timeline for significantly reopening our international borders to mid-2022,” Qantas said. “We remain optimistic that additional bubbles will open once Australia’s vaccine rollout is complete to countries who, by then, are in a similar position, but it’s difficult to predict which ones at this stage.”
We reported two weeks ago that the U.S. has granted a Vietnamese carrier called Bamboo Airways rights to begin flying here, and now that company has set its initial plans. Bamboo said it expects to begin flying to both San Francisco and Los Angeles from Hanoi on Sept. 1, initially operating four 787-9 flights a week in both markets but gradually increasing to daily frequencies. There is currently no scheduled service from the U.S. to Vietnam. Another foreign carrier has also announced its first service to the U.S.: Air Senegal said it will start flying Sept. 2, offering twice-weekly A330-900 flights to Washington Dulles via a stop at New York JFK from its home base of Dakar, Senegal on Africa’s west coast. And Turkish Airlines, a member of United’s Star Alliance, will introduce a new U.S. route on May 21 when it starts four flights a week from Istanbul to Newark, increasing to daily flights on June 1. Turkish had planned to debut the route a year ago, but the pandemic intervened; it already flies to New York JFK.
In domestic news, Alaska Airlines has set May 20 for the introduction or resumption of service on a number of routes, including daily flights from both San Francisco International and Mineta San Jose to Missoula, Mont. Other California routes set to launch May 20 include service from Los Angeles to Kauai, and San Diego to both New York JFK and Bozeman, Mont., followed on May 21 by service from LAX and San Diego to Kalispell, Mont. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines last week kicked off Palm Springs-Las Vegas service with four flights a week, increasing to daily in June. And Southwest introduced a new route from its Denver hub to Richmond, Va., providing some competition to United.
Hollywood Burbank Airport, which recently welcomed the start of service by the new low-cost carrier Avelo to several secondary cities, is getting another new airline tenant. Frontier Airlines said last week it plans to add Burbank to its route map on July 15, when it will launch daily flights to Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Frontier already flies to Los Angeles International and to Ontario International, and it is planning to expand at the latter airport as well in mid-July, adding new service to Atlanta four days a week and boosting its Denver schedule to 11 flights a week.
On June 1, United Airlines will bring back some in-flight services for customers on flights over two hours, letting them purchase beer, wine and White Claw Hard Seltzer, a new beverage. Then on June 15, the airline will roll out a new selection of snacks for purchase as well as new premium cabin meals on most flights of more than 1,500 miles and on hub-to-hub flights of more than 800 miles or two hours. The items can be bought via United’s mobile app/wallet from the Buy-on-Board menu. Click here to read the details of what will be available.
The United Kingdom has announced plans to start opening up to international travel on May 17, but only to a select handful of countries that the U.K. government has put on the first version of its so-called green list – and the U.S. is not on it. That has outraged major U.S. and U.K. airlines, since they had been counting on quickly renewing passenger flights now that the peak summer travel season is almost here. Last week, the CEOs of United, Delta, American, JetBlue, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic fired off a letter to the transportation secretaries of the U.S. and U.K., urging them to convene an immediate summit meeting on how to restart transatlantic travel “safely and expeditiously.” The U.S. continues to maintain a ban on travel here from the U.K.; Britain allows Americans to enter, but only if they submit to a 10-day quarantine and multiple COVID tests.
In unveiling its green list, the U.K. said it would continuously review the status of other nations’ COVID containment efforts and adjust its list accordingly every few weeks. But it offered no clues as to which nations might be added in the weeks ahead, and the airline chiefs stressed the urgency of renewing air travel. “The timing for this summit is key,” the airlines said. “The airline industry needs adequate lead time to establish a plan for restarting air services, including scheduling aircraft and crews for these routes as well as for marketing and selling tickets.” They cited the increasing vaccination rates for citizens of both countries as well as dramatic increases in COVID testing capacity since last year. “We are confident that the aviation industry possesses the right tools, based on data and science, to enable a safe and meaningful restart to transatlantic travel,” they said. Major countries on the U.K.’s first green list include Portugal, Israel, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, and Iceland.
The U.S. State Dept. did make one small concession to the U.K. last week when it lowered its advisory on travel there from Level 4 (Do Not Travel) to Level 3 (Reconsider Travel). The U.S. also eased up on its Israel advisory from Level 4 to Level 2 (Exercise Increased Caution) – although that was just before a new wave of violence erupted between Israelis and Palestinians, a development that led United, Delta and American to temporarily suspend flights to Israel.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to require than anyone flying here from another country must obtain a negative COVID test within 72 hours of their departure or they won’t be allowed to board. Until now, that meant travelers would have to locate an acceptable testing facility at their foreign destination. But last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that travelers can now use home tests to fulfill that requirement -- as long as it is an NAAT or rapid antigen viral test that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and the test manufacturer provides a telehealth service to supervise the test remotely and certify a negative result. That means travelers can now buy a test kit before they leave home, take it with them, and administer it just before they return.
Shortly after that announcement, United Airlines introduced a new partnership with Abbott to offer customers the Abbot BinaxNOW home test for $150. That includes integration between the United app’s Travel Ready Center and Abbott’s NAVICA app, “which provides a seamless passenger experience when departing and re-entering the United States,” United said, noting that the Abbott test meets all CDC requirements. The home test kit is “about the size of a day planner,” the airline said, and thus will easily fit into a carry-on bag, briefcase or purse.