Airline Shutdowns, Bag Fees, Brisbane Expansion & More [Weekly Roundup]

This week we saw the extremes of the aviation industry, airlines expanding and airlines ceasing operations. It's still clear that, even post pandemic, some airlines are struggling to operate while others are seeing their biggest profits ever. However, there are some airlines that are looking for the easy buck to make off their passengers.

Along with some program changes, American Airlines has also started the domino effect of upping their checked bag fees another $10 and other airlines has decided to follow with upping their bag fees as well.

From the passenger experience, I am excited to see the A220 continue to enter service with more airlines. It's a great and spacious airplane, I do hear it still have some problems with maintenance reliability, but it has gotten better. Also let's just admire the livery that Qantas chose, I'm always a fan of their special liveries.

Winter in the Northern Hemisphere always brings pretty strong winds. The jet streams can get extremely strong, and this week it sounds like it has been the strongest they have been in a while. With up to 200 knots of wind pushing you along, some airplanes were reaching up to 800 miles per hour!

The TWA Hotel at the JFK Airport is being sold, my hope is that they clean it up. I've had the displeasure of staying here a few times on very short layovers. It's extremely expensive, and the entire hotel is very dirty feeling. I have seen homeless people sleeping in weird areas and the whole hotel smelling like smoke and weed. At this point, I have just opted to stay at an off property hotel at this point.

Etihad hates people who redeem miles. If you're not paying cash for premium seats, there's not much care for you. It's just the icing on the cake that they are charging outrageous cancellation fees. But not unexpected, Middle Eastern carriers are struggling to become profitable, and they probably see this as an opportunity to find a way to increase paid tickets.

In the next episode of, Why Can't People Behave on Airlines... Passenger on passenger violence seems to have just gotten worse in the last few years. How is it that we can't have normal conversations and not bring up violence?

As mentioned with struggling airlines, Lynx is calling it quits. It was a recent post-pandemic low-cost carrier startup. They seemed to have struggled from day one to really attract a market and competing with the other big budget carriers in Canada. The worse part about all this, too, no refunds. Hopefully, most people paid with credit cars and will be filing chargebacks.

Brisbane is a popular new destination, supposedly the capital city has created a huge assistance fund to subsidize travel to the city. All three legacy carriers in the US have announced routes to service the city. It'll be interesting to see how long this lasts, however it's great to see Delta expanding more service in the Pacific.

Yes, yes, and more yes. When I go to a lounge, I want a quiet atmosphere that I can relax or work in. I have had more times than I can count where kids are running around in the lounge, bumping into people. And not to mention people bringing in screaming babies and not attempting at all to quiet them or take them away to calm them down. Airline lounges should be 18 and over.

And to finish off the week, Ravn Alaska, the main connection for the people of Alaska to remote communities, announced the layoff of 130 staff and restructuring. I have to think that a lot of their problems started with New Pacific Airlines, a startup that has a rocky beginning and has been trying to get approval to connect Alaska with Japan.