In this week’s summary, a new airline in California will take to the air later this month; Alaska Airlines takes over American’s former Admirals Club at SFO; Delta and Southwest start new routes from Oakland; Alaska revives some SFO and San Jose services; the US is working with airlines to set technical standards for COVID passports; Kauai and Maui change their COVID test rules for incoming mainland visitors; Greece plans to open mid-May for international; tourists; JetBlue unveils the improved economy cabin for its upcoming flights to London; some United Domestic kites test “touchless” procedures at San Francisco International, and the airport extends its ban on plastic containers; and a new COVID testing facility opens at Seattle-Tacoma International.
California gets a new airline this month. A start-up carrier is called Avelo said last week that it would operate from a hub at Burbank Airport Hollywood and initially serve 11 destinations in the Western U.S., including some in Northern California. None of the 11 take-off destinations currently have an uninterrupted airline from Burbank. Avelo has been quietly developed for many months, led by Andrew Levy, chairman and CEO, a former CFO of United Airlines and a founder of the cheap Allegiant Airlines. Other members of the Avelo executive team have backgrounds at Allegiant, Delta, JetBlue, United and American. The low-cost carrier will drive 737-800, starting on April 28 with flights from Burbank to Santa Rosa, California, followed on April 29 and 30 with routes from Burbank to Pasco, Wash., And Bozeman, Mont. During May, Avelo will route routes from Burbank to Phoenix / Mesa (AZA); Ogden, Utah; Grand Junction, Colo .; Medford, Eugene, and Bend / Redmond, Ore .; Arkata / Eureka and Rescue, California.
The airline has launched a website at www.aveloair.com and is already taking bookings with introductory rates as low as $ 19. Avelo has a list of additional fees, including $ 10 for the first checked-in bag, $ 35 for a hand luggage stored at the top, and $ 10 for priority boarding. Most seats have a dense 29-inch pitch (ie legroom; the standard of American airlines is 30-31 inches), but 60 of them have a pitch of 31-38 inches for an additional amount of at least $ 18. And if you book a window or aisle seat in advance, it costs $ 5.
Alaska Airlines plans a late summer opening for a new passenger lounge at San Francisco International. The company said last week that it would take over and renovate the former American Airlines Admirals Club space in Terminal 2, which would give Alaska a 10,000-square-foot lounge – the second largest in its system after the one in Seattle’s North satellite terminal. The new SFO lounge features a full bar with local art brews and West Coast wines and spirits; an espresso bar manned by a barista; and a variety of foods such as bespoke pancakes, steel-cut oatmeal, fresh salads and soups. Alaska has also announced that it will introduce a new two-tier pricing scheme for its airport lounge program in October. A standard Alaska Lounge membership costs $ 450 per year (or $ 350 for elite-level members of the Mileage Plan loyalty program), which provides access to all of the airline’s lounges, whether they’re in Alaska or a other airlines fly.
A new Alaska Lounge Plus membership, priced at $ 600 per year (or $ 500 for Mileage Plan elite), includes access to all Alaska lounges and an extensive network of airline partners in the country Alaska – including all American Airlines Admirals Clubs, ”Alaska said. The service provider added that new lounge memberships and renewals made before the two-tier pricing begins in October will ‘become an Alaska Lounge Plus membership for the year. In addition to the new SFO facility, the Alaska Lounge network includes three locations in Seattle-Tacoma and lounges in LAX, New York JFK, Anchorage and Portland.
Travelers in East Bay have some new options for intra-travel. April 12 is the launch date for Delta Luglynea new service between Oakland International and Los Angeles International Airport, which challenges Suidwes’ dominance on this route. Like Southwest, Delta will operate three flights a day, but with smaller Embraer 175s (Southwest uses 737s) with first-class, Comfort + (extra legroom) plus regular economy and basic seating. Spirit Airlines also flies with the OAK-LAX route, but with less than daily frequencies. Delta already flies from San Francisco International and Mineta San Jose to LAX. Southwest will also introduce the only uninterrupted service between Oakland and Santa Barbara on April 12, with one daily 737 return from OAK at 11:45 p.m. On the same date, Southwest will begin flying three times a day between Santa Barbara and Las Vegas.
In other Bay Route news, Alaska Airlines resumed his service from San Francisco International to Honolulu and Maui, revived his suspended flights from Mineta San Jose to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta, and said he plans to introduce new service from SJC to Missoula, Mont. in May. Elsewhere in California, Alaska, this past week began uninterrupted with its daily stop from its growing San Diego center to New York JFK, which supplemented its daily SAN-Newark flights; and Delta on April 12 begins A220 flights twice daily between LAX and Houston Bush Intercontinental.
The federal government maintains that it will not create a national COVID health care passport for vaccinated individuals and may not yield the use of such a document for air travel or anything else. But according to a Reuters report last week, the Biden administration is in “extensive discussions” with U.S. airlines and other stakeholders in the travel industry about technical standards to be applied to such passports created by the private sector. Several digital COVID passports are underway, but airlines are concerned that the passports may not be accepted by foreign governments, but that this is the key to getting international travel without a uniform, government-sanctioned set of standards and technical guidelines. to ensure its accuracy. started again. Although the US does not require a COVID passport from its citizens, airlines say, foreign countries can demand it from international visitors.
There is no end to the COVID confusion for travelers to Hawaii. In the latest example, the islands of Maui and Kauai are changing their COVID policy for tourists. In December, the island of Kauai withdrew from Hawaii’s “Safe Travels” program, which allows visitors who give a negative result during a COVID test before traveling to avoid the state’s mandatory quarantine. Instead, Kauai required visitors to get a negative result during a second test taken three days after arrival. But last week, Kauai got back into the program and dropped the second test requirement. The island again welcomes travelers flying directly from the mainland if they comply with all Safe Travel rules, including getting a negative COVID test from a state-approved partner facility no more than 72 hours before boarding their flight.
But Kauai still likes the idea of a second test upon arrival, so it offers free, voluntary tests to visitors and encourages them to take the test by offering a Kokua Kauai card that is discounted or free providing goods and services to dozens of businesses. on the island. Maui, on the other hand, plans to adopt Kauai’s former policy by the end of April, which requires continental visitors to take a mandatory second COVID test upon arrival at the island’s Kahului airport. The cost of the test is picked up by Maui County. Visitors who do not take the second test (or who achieve a positive result) will face the state’s mandatory ten-day quarantine.
Another European country is opening up to international visitors. Greek Tourism Minister Harry Theocharis said in the country’s parliament last week that he expects Greece to start welcoming foreign tourists on May 14, provided they provide documentation of a full COVID vaccination or a negative test result. Greek officials are counting on a continued deployment of vaccines in the country to strengthen the defense against the coronavirus so that foreign visitors can not pose a significant risk for the spread of the disease. The Greek economy is highly dependent on tourism, which makes the reopening of the border more urgent.
As JetBlue approaching the start of its very first transatlantic flights later this year (to London from New York JFK and Boston), it reveals more details about the kind of product and service customers can expect. Two months ago, the airline unveiled a revised premium Mint cabin for the Airbus A321LR single-aisle aircraft it will use on the route, with more spacious seats and a few privacy suites. And now JetBlue has announced the details of its economic cabin on the route (the carrier refers to this cabin as its ‘core experience’). The new cabin will have 114 seats in a 3×3 setup with a standard height of 32 inches – “the most legroom in the trainer” of any major transatlantic airline, JetBlue claims. The seat width is extended to 18.4 inches (“wider than most seats found in a wide-body aircraft today”) and the cabin has four rows of the transporter’s Even More Space seat with up to six extra legroom. Seating will be equipped with AC and USB-C power ports, and passengers have free access to unlimited high-speed WiFi, as well as a wide range of entertainment in the fight, including live TV. The flight service includes a ‘concept for your own dining room,’ ‘JetBlue said, enabling customers to use their backrest screen to tailor the main items and side dishes for their meal. The plane also has a “self-serve grab-and-go” pantry with snacks.
SITA, a global provider of airline and airport technology, is recruiting United Airlines passengers at San Francisco International to take part in a test of its new SITA Smart Path system, which it describes as a low-touch biometric airport experience of check -in boarding. “Travelers on selected domestic flights who choose to take part in the test will link their driving license to their” facial biometric “when checking in. “They can then move through the airport, from check-in to check-in bag, security and boarding plane, by simply scanning their face at every point of contact,” SITA said without handing over an ID or boarding pass to anyone. more than half of all international flights at SFO had biometric boarding, the company noted, and this test extends to domestic flights, Lori Augustine, United’s vp airport industry at SFO, said the SITA test “will help us to inform biometric supply in the future, and to offer our domestic customers a smooth experience when traveling through SFO. “
San Francisco International makes plastic bottles even harder. In August 2019, SFO became the first major airport to ban the sale of disposable water bottles with plastic or aseptic paper containers. Last week, the airport extended the ban on including any kind of liquor in the containers, including soft drinks, tea and juices. The airport said the expanded policy should prevent 1 million SFO drink containers from going to landfills each year. It’s all part of a zero-dumping target set by the airport five years ago; at the time, studies found that 33% of the airport’s landfill was from liquor and food containers.
XpresSpa Group Inc., which adds COVID testing to its network of airport spas across the country, has opened its latest ExpresCheck test site in Seattle-Tacoma International. It is a pop-up facility within the terminal pre-security in the baggage claim area near Carousel 9. The site can take up to 500 tests per day, which includes both Rapid Molecular COVID-19 tests and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests offer. . Tests are by appointment only (at www.XpresCheck.com) for ticket passengers up to 72 hours before travel. The facility is open daily from 08:00 to 17:00
Jim Glab is a freelance travel writer.