As SkyWest Airlines plans to roll out a new charter service, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) is decrying the new business line as an attempt to “roll back the clock and skirt the aviation safety rules”. In a 26 April letter to the US Department of Transportation, ALPA calls on the agency to “reject the invitation to weaken regional airline safety” allegedly posed by the new charter service being launched by the ”dominant and most successful regional airline in the United States”. SkyWest contracts with major US carriers Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, operating a fleet of more than 500 regional jets. It recently launched a new charter operation, which completed its first revenue flight earlier this month. Addressed to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the letter says, “You have repeatedly promised that the first officer qualifications will not be weakened under this administration’s watch. But the applicant’s proposal would do just that by gutting the rule under which regional pilots… gain entry to the national airline system.” ”SkyWest is applying to substitute their essential air service flying — operated at the highest level of safety — with a new alter-ego ‘charter’ subsidiary operating essentially a scheduled operation, but at a lesser level of safety,” the pilots’ union says. ”The airline seeks to shift its flying under Part 121’s safety regulations to its own surrogate that will operate the same aircraft but under public charter rules and Part 135’s safety regulations, with fewer seats and less experienced and qualified first officers,” it adds. ALPA calls the regional carrier’s bid to launch its charter service a “loophole” that would weaken flight safety. ”This regional airline proposes to be a commuter air carrier that will do ‘on demand’ charters, but in reality the airline will offer scheduled service, not charters, as the applicant itself admits,” the pilot’s union says. In his own letter to Buttigieg, dated 27 April, Chip Childs, SkyWest’s CE, said the ALPA assertions are “baseless, inaccurate and misleading”. “[The] statements simply reflect ALPA’s incorrect assumptions regarding the experience level or safety of the pilots SkyWest Charter will use in its proposed operation,” the letter reads. “ALPA’s assertions are thinly-veiled attempts, under the cloak of ‘safety’, to bar market entry by a well-capitalised, exceptionally well-equipped, non-ALPA operator in SkyWest Charter,” he adds.<br/>
unaligned
Sun Country Airlines has the ultra-low-cost carrier playbook nailed down. The airline has a single crew base in Minneapolis, only Boeing 737s and a singular focus: ”flying people where they want to fly” for low fares, the airline’s chief operating officer Greg Mays told FlightGlobal during the MRO Americas event in Atlanta on 18 April. Sun Country also operates out of of other Midwest cities, especially during winter months, flying “snowbird’ holiday travellers from Madison and Milwaukee (Wisconsin) to balmier places such as Las Vegas and Fort Myers (Florida). But this coming summer, Sun Country plans to tweak its strategy by launching new routes – some seasonal-only – to a host of US cities, offering what Mays calls more “big city connectivity”. In one of the ultra-low-cost carrier’s largest-ever network expansions, Sun Country is in the midst of rolling out 15 new routes. The airline is launching flights from Minneapolis to Charlotte (North Carolina), Columbus (Ohio), Kansas City (Missouri), Richmond (Virginia), Louisville (Kentucky), Colorado Springs, Atlantic City (New Jersey), Omaha (Nebraska) and Detroit (Michigan), among other smaller cities. Most of the flights will operate twice weekly. “We will start operating [out of] Seattle this summer”, with flights to places other than Minneapolis, Mays says. ”We will connect to a lot of big city markets, mostly out of Minneapolis, but we have a big Dallas network during the summer, as well.” Sun Country grew “prudently” during its recovery from the pandemic-related downturn in air travel but aims to get bigger this summer, with plans to be flying 120 routes to 90 airports. “Every block hour we add, we want to add it to scheduled service because it is kind of the best thing right now,” Mays says. “We feel really good about our summer. We have been working very hard operationally to make sure that we are delivering a good operation for our passengers, and there are 15 new markets we are executing on now.”<br/>
Azerbaijan Airlines has today unveiled an order for eight Boeing 787-8s at a ceremony in Baku, firming and expanding a preliminary commitment for four Dreamliners made at last summer’s Farnborough air show. The airline had in January indicated its intention to introduce more 787s to its fleet, without specifying details. Azerbaijan Airlines already operates a pair of Dreamliners and had last summer signed a preliminary deal with Boeing covering four more 787-8s. At that point the airframer noted it formed part of the airline’s intention to grow its Dreamliner fleet to 10 by 2030. The airline had previously outlined a commitment for four more 787s in 2017. Boeing notes that after announcing its commitment for four 787s last summer, the carrier has since finalised an order for eight 787s. These had been attributed to an unidentified customer in Boeing’s orders and deliveries data. No engine selection has been disclosed for the additional Dreamliners. Azerbaijan Airlines’ two existing 787s are powered by GE Aerospace GEnx engines. Cirium fleets data shows the airline also operates three 767s and one 757, alongside a fleet of Airbus narrowbodies; it also has a pair of A340-500s in storage. Azerbajan Airlines had also indicated plans to take additional A320neos and earlier in April signed for a dozen Airbus single-aisle jets, comprising A321neo and A320neo variants.<br/>