Will your city’s flights be dropped? Bailed-out airlines seek service cuts — but feds push back
For travelers, getting to some cities could get tougher.
Airlines taking federal bailout money are asking for exemptions from minimum service levels they are required to provide as a condition of their government-provided loans and grants.
Of course, airlines are known for adding or reducing levels of service and the cities to which they fly all the time. But now, because of the bailout – the federal stimulus package to ease the economic damage brought by the coronavirus pandemic – the government is involved in the decision-making.
Under its revised order, the Department of Transportation is stipulating that airlines receiving federal assistance that had offered a flight or more a day at least five days a week to a destination be required to now provide at least one flight a day, five days per week. For service to airports that had been less than five days a week, the carrier would need fly there only one day a week.
The DOT, however, appears ready to take a tough stance against the exemption requests, based on its initial verdicts Thursday on airline requests it has reviewed. It started with JetBlue and discounter Spirit.
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In the case of JetBlue, the DOT granted its request to cut service to only two of the 12 destinations that it requested. Both of the approvals were for airports in Puerto Rico, Aquadilla and Ponce, where it agrees that it would be impractical to continue serving given the governor has requested all arriving passengers stop first in San Juan for passenger screening.
As for Spirit, the DOT issued an even tougher slap down.
It not only denied the discount air carrier’s request to drop 25 destinations where it had already stopped service April 8 – many of them to major cities including Indianapolis and San Francisco – but it ordered the airline to reinstate flights to them. The DOT granted exemptions only for Aquadilla, Puerto Rico.
Spirit and JetBlue were among a variety of carriers, from majors like American and Delta to no-frills discounters that applied for the exemptions.
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The airlines in question want service exemptions because planes are flying with so few passengers amid the crisis.
Airlines say even that amount of reduced flying will still result in such steep losses that it runs against their goal of trying to preserve cash until the economy rebounds.
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The list of destinations that airlines want to drop runs the gamut from big cities to small, though it’s the small ones, especially in remote communities, that could see the biggest impact.
Among the cities that Sun Country, the Minneapolis-based discounter, wants to officially boot are three it stopped flying to last year – Gulfport, Mississippi, Santa Barbara, California, and Sonoma County, California.
Based on the pandemic and actions taken to limit the spread of the coronavirus, “coupled with the resulting economic crisis, Sun Country’s flights to the destinations covered by this exemption request have forecast extremely low load factors for the coming months, with most in the single digits or low teens,” the airline said in the filing Tuesday.
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In the city of Sonoma, Mayor Logan Harvey told USA TODAY the loss of any airline is painful, given how the local economy in the heart of California’s wine country is dependent on tourism during normal times. He said he’s also worried that other airlines might also be compelled to cut service when they see Sun Country’s move.
“When one pulls out, the others see that decision,” Harvey said. “It’s not unconcerning.”
But given the pandemic, another mayor in Hawaii welcomes the service cutback as helping in the effort to quell the spread of the coronavirus.
Michael Victorino, mayor of Maui County, Hawaii, wrote the Department of Transportation in support of Hawaiian Airlines’ request to suspend service to Kapalua Airport near Lahaina, a secondary airport serving Maui and two neighboring islands.
“My primary goal is protecting the health and safety of the citizens of the three islands,” Victorino wrote. “That means limiting the number of visitors to Hawaii until the health threat has passed and the restrictions placed on Hawaiian Airlines have been lifted.”
Among the cities where airlines are asking for exemptions to reduce or eliminate service, at least temporarily:
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American
American is asking for latitude in providing seasonal service to Anchorage, Alaska; Kalispell, Montana; Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. It wants to stop service to ski destinations, Vail, Aspen and Montrose, Colorado; and Kahului, Kona, and Lihue, Hawaii.
Delta
Delta asks for flexibility in the dates of its seasonal service to Cody, Wyoming; Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska; Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts; West Yellowstone, Montana; and Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted, Virgin Islands.
United
United wants to stop flying to Green Bay, Wisconsin; Gunnison, Colorado; Ithaca, New York; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Valparaiso. Florida; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, saying it will reconsider a July 6 resumption of service. United is also asking for suspension of service to Hilo, Kona, Lihue, and Kahului, Hawaii, for the duration of the order, and to San Juan, Puerto Rico, until May 6 and to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands until July 6. It is also requesting postponement of the start seasonal service to Fairbanks, Alaska; Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Sun Valley, Idaho, until July 6.
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JetBlue
JetBlue was denied by the DOT to stop service to Albuquerque; Portland, Oregon; Bozeman, Montana; Reno, Nevada; and Dallas/Fort Worth; Sacramento; Houston; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Worcester, Massachusetts and seasonal service to Palm Springs, California. It was granted permission to stop serving Aquadilla and Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Alaska
Alaska wants an exemption for Kona, Lihue and Kahului, Hawaii; and Sun Valley, Idaho for April and May, because continued service “is not reasonable or practicable.”
Allegiant
Allegiant has a long list of cities that it says it can no longer afford to serve regularly, It wants to stop flying to Alburquerque, New Mexico; Bellingham, Washington; El Paso, Texas; McAllen, Texas; Ogden, Utah and Palm Springs, California, through June 30. In addition, it requests a halt to flights to Clarksburg, West Virginia; Dayton, Ohio; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Little Rock, Arkansas; Moline and Springfield, Illinois; Montrose, Colorado; Ogdensburg, New York; Owensboro, Kentucky; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Rochester, New York; St. Cloud, Minnesota; San Antonio; San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Tucson, Arizona, through Sept. 30.
Frontier
Through June 10, Frontier wants to temporarily stop serving Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo, New York; Billings and Bozeman, Montana; Bloomington, Illinois; Burlington, Vermont; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Detroit; El Paso, Tyler and Harlingen, Texas; Fargo, N.D.; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Spokane, Washington; Green Bay and Madison, Wisconsin; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina; Huntsville, Alabama; Wichita, Kansas; Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; Pittsburgh; Palm Springs, California; Portland, Maine; Louisville, Kentucky; and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Sun Country
Sun Country is asking to suspend service from April 20 to June 15 to cities including Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego, California; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; Denver; Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Boston; San Antonio; Seattle; Honolulu; Philadelphia; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington, D.C.; St. Louis: Madison, Wisconsin and Anchorage, Alaska.
Spirit
The DOT denied Spirit’s request to stop serving these cities, which it argued is not “reasonable or practical” during the crisis: Asheville, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; Charleston, West Virginia; Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted, Virgin Islands; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Greensboro, North Carolina; Hartford, Connecticut; Indianapolis, Indiana; Jacksonville, Florida; Pittsburgh and Latrobe, Pennsylvania; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; New York City; Niagara Falls and Plattsburgh, New York; Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh/Durham; Sacramento and San Francisco, California. Portland, Oregon, was included in Spirit’s original request but appears to have been left out of the order. The DOT also gave its approval for Spirit to stop flying to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
