A commercial pilot was under the influence of alcohol while flying a JetBlue airliner carrying 151 passengers last year from Orlando to New York City, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint says Dennis Murphy Jr. was selected for a random alcohol test after Flight 584 landed at Kennedy Airport April 21, 2015. The court papers allege that the test found that his blood-alcohol level was 0.11, exceeding the .04 legal limit for pilots. A co-pilot later told investigators he saw Murphy "drinking an unknown beverage from a cup before and during" Flight 584 and another flight earlier in the day from New York to Orlando, the complaint says. Murphy was to be arraigned later Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn. JetBlue said it has a "zero tolerance" drug and alcohol policy, and that Murphy no longer works there. <br/>
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Qantas and Vietnam Airlines have unveiled plans to invest US$139m to more than double the size of Jetstar Pacific's fleet to 30 aircraft over the next 4 years. Qantas, as the owner of a 30%, will provide $42m to Jetstar Pacific over a number of tranches between now and 2020 with Vietnam Airlines responsible for the remainder due to its 70% stake. The decision to boost the A320 fleet was flagged in November, but at the time Qantas and Vietnam Airlines did not provide any details of the financial investment required. Jetstar Pacific has 12 aircraft that are flown on 23 domestic and international routes, but CAPA said that was expected to rise to 18 by the end of 2016. In the first half of the Qantas financial year, Jetstar Pacific capacity rose by 48%, although the percentage of seats filled dipped to 83.4% from 88.3% a year earlier. <br/>
Spirit Airlines flies to roughly 200 markets and says its ultralow-cost model would work in more than 500. Its new CE, Bob Fornaro, is ready to test that notion by starting flights to some smaller cities. “Our objective is to be more nimble and less predictable in our [fleet] deployment,” Fornaro said Tuesday. The airline has about half its capacity in 5 large markets: Fort Lauderdale, at 30%, followed by Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas. The rest is allocated to major cities with large populations, many of which also happen to be hubs for bigger airlines keen to keep Spirit away. Yet as the carrier grows from its fleet of 83 aircraft to 148 by 2022, it will need medium and small cities with leisure travellers—or potential leisure travellers, if the price is right to spur them to take a trip. <br/>