Welcome to the South Florida Aviation Thread 2021. Please continue to post your news and your discussion here.

Link to previous thread:

South Florida Aviation Thread - 2020

Happy New Year, everyone!

Any predictions for 2021?

Going with Azul resuming some of their non VCP flights to Brazil from FLL.

Frontier is adding another two Miami routes.

Twice a week to St. Thomas from March 7th.

Twice a week to Punta Cana from March 8th.

Losing track of how many routes that is. I think coming close to 30 or so by April.

I read rumours about a new airline/start-up with B717 in FL. Any more information about this venture?

[twoid][/twoid]

MAH4546 wrote:

Frontier is adding another two Miami routes.

Twice a week to St. Thomas from March 7th.

Twice a week to Punta Cana from March 8th.

Losing track of how many routes that is. I think coming close to 30 or so by April.

F9 will also be resuming daily MIA-LAS on March 7.

https://news.flyfrontier.com/frontier-a ... rom-miami/

TUI Airlines Belgium plans to launch Brussels-Miami service with Boeing 787-8 from April 3, 2021.

Miami wrote:

TUI Airlines Belgium plans to launch Brussels-Miami service with Boeing 787-8 from April 3, 2021.

Great!

Southwest will replace the three daily Miami-Tampa flights with one daily to Dallas Love and two daily to Atlanta.

MAH4546 wrote:

Southwest will replace the three daily Miami-Tampa flights with one daily to Dallas Love and two daily to Atlanta.

Sad to see Tampa go completely but very great additions of ATL and DAL.

Brickell305 wrote:

MAH4546 wrote:

Southwest will replace the three daily Miami-Tampa flights with one daily to Dallas Love and two daily to Atlanta.

Sad to see Tampa go completely but very great additions of ATL and DAL.

Yes, great adds. And Midway goes from once a day to three times a day. So Southwest now up to 18 daily flights.

MIA-TPA never made sense to me. The new adds make a lot more sense.

JetBlue to operate out of Concourse E at MIA.

AA announces a few routes from MIA including TLV.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1457569

MAH4546 wrote:

Southwest will replace the three daily Miami-Tampa flights with one daily to Dallas Love and two daily to Atlanta.

An untold story of this pandemic realignment is how aggressive WN has gotten in ATL. I like it FWIW!

MIA-ATL will be a winner.
WN has maintained a larger presence on ATL-FLL/PBI than one might expect with DL's South Florida strength.

Miami International Airport traffic highlights for December 2020:

Passengers: 1.9 million, -55.0% year-on-year;
- Domestic: 1.1 million, -50.2%;
- International: 805,568, -60.2%;

Cargo: 211,635 tons, +10.7%;
- Domestic: 40,763 tons, +24.3%;
- International: 170,872 tons, +7.9%;

Aircraft movements: 25,612, -33.1%;
- Domestic: 14,089, -34.3%;
- International: 11,523, -31.5%

Miami International Airport traffic highlights for 2020:

Passengers: 18.7 million, -59.4%;
- Domestic: 11.3 million, -52.2%;
- International: 7.4 million, -66.9%;

Cargo: 2.4 million tons, +2.2%;
- Domestic: 438,221 tons, +5.9%;
- International: 1.9 million tons, +1.3%;

Aircraft movements: 249,676, -39.8%;
- Domestic: 143,743, -35.6%;
- International: 105,933, -44.6%

Silver Airways plans to launch twice weekly service with an ATR 42 to Fort Lauderdale-Savannah from April 1, 2021.

Air France intends to resume Miami – Port-au-Prince service on June 21, 2021. 3 weekly, A320.

Miami wrote:

Air France intends to resume Miami – Port-au-Prince service on June 21, 2021. 3 weekly, A320.

By the time they return, there may not be much of a market for them. AA is moving into PAP in a very aggressive way. Up to 5x daily with 787 service on some days. I’ve heard anecdotally that AF catered to the crowd (mostly more well off Haitians) that abhorred AA’s customer service but with that much capacity (and the favorable pricing it brings), how big will that potential market be?

JetBlue starts MIA service today.

tphuang wrote:

MIA-TPA never made sense to me. The new adds make a lot more sense.

Me either. AA must have killed them on that route. And I assume that WN will still serve FLL-TPA.

BTW, I live here in Florida as well and I can't believe what I am reading above! Specifics omitted!

Please refrain from discussing politics.

Based on today's AA and B6 releases it appears both airlines are presenting themselves as a single-entity on flights from BOS/NYC to/from FLL/MIA/PBI.

http://news.aa.com/news/news-details/20 ... fault.aspx

http://mediaroom.jetblue.com/investor-r ... -160050512

But of importance no codesharing on routes to/from MIA and FLL. Only PBI routes at least initially covered by code sharing.

Just Booked a flight on AA to MDE on 4/7. Regularly fly this route and it's always on a 737 or A319. Was stunned to see a 788 on the schedule for this date. Glitch or AA has started to rotate 787s on Short Haul International routes?

DCA350 wrote:

Just Booked a flight on AA to MDE on 4/7. Regularly fly this route and it's always on a 737 or A319. Was stunned to see a 788 on the schedule for this date. Glitch or AA has started to rotate 787s on Short Haul International routes?

It’s not a glitch. Also using 787s to Cali.

MAH4546 wrote:

DCA350 wrote:

Just Booked a flight on AA to MDE on 4/7. Regularly fly this route and it's always on a 737 or A319. Was stunned to see a 788 on the schedule for this date. Glitch or AA has started to rotate 787s on Short Haul International routes?

It’s not a glitch. Also using 787s to Cali.

Thanks, I guess they have to go somewhere lol.. Like when AA used to use the A330s out of PHL and Charlotte to the Caribbean. Looking forward to it, been on 787s with other carriers but not AA yet.

MAH4546 wrote:

DCA350 wrote:

Just Booked a flight on AA to MDE on 4/7. Regularly fly this route and it's always on a 737 or A319. Was stunned to see a 788 on the schedule for this date. Glitch or AA has started to rotate 787s on Short Haul International routes?

It’s not a glitch. Also using 787s to Cali.

Have they already scheduled the 787 flights to CLO? I can't seem to find any in their bookings.

Miami International Airport traffic highlights for January 2021:

Passengers: 1.8 million, -56.1% year-on-year;
Domestic: 1.2 million, -47.1%;
International: 677,400, -66.1%;

Cargo: 207,855 tons, +6.0%;
Domestic: 40,873 tons, +24.0%;
International: 166,983 tons, +2.4%;

Aircraft movements: 25,386, -32.9%;
Domestic: 14,085, -33.0%;
International: 11,301, -32.8%.

JetBlue to launch daily Miami-Hartford service in June: http://blueir.investproductions.com/inv ... -150024055

Miami wrote:

JetBlue to launch daily Miami-Hartford service in June: http://blueir.investproductions.com/inv ... -150024055

MIA service is going great for both B6 and WN so far. More possibilities HPN, SJU, SDQ/STI, RDU, SFO.

Wonder of the B6 additions, help blunt DL's aspirations in MIA? The LATAM partnership is there, but all the adds may trigger a pullback in DL's ambitions as yields for them may end up being diluted. I am not counting DL out. It's a much smarter c-suite and a better run airline on a number of fronts over AA, B6, and WN, but DL is seeing its ambitions under assault in a lot of places right now. So, I think AA doesn't really care about B6 adding more in MIA, as for now, it may help it.

ContinentalEWR wrote:

Wonder of the B6 additions, help blunt DL's aspirations in MIA? The LATAM partnership is there, but all the adds may trigger a pullback in DL's ambitions as yields for them may end up being diluted. I am not counting DL out. It's a much smarter c-suite and a better run airline on a number of fronts over AA, B6, and WN, but DL is seeing its ambitions under assault in a lot of places right now. So, I think AA doesn't really care about B6 adding more in MIA, as for now, it may help it.

AA and JetBlue are partners. AA doesn’t care and actually supports an expansion into MIA. LATAM and Delta are also partners and LATAM is still hoping for Delta to expand into MIA. However, there’s no question that Delta will turn MIA into a likely focus city and if it’s not, it’ll be damn close to one. Plans may be on hold for now but once things start looking better, don’t be surprised to see Delta announce a fair amount of routes from MIA.

Miami wrote:

ContinentalEWR wrote:

Wonder of the B6 additions, help blunt DL's aspirations in MIA? The LATAM partnership is there, but all the adds may trigger a pullback in DL's ambitions as yields for them may end up being diluted. I am not counting DL out. It's a much smarter c-suite and a better run airline on a number of fronts over AA, B6, and WN, but DL is seeing its ambitions under assault in a lot of places right now. So, I think AA doesn't really care about B6 adding more in MIA, as for now, it may help it.

AA and JetBlue are partners. AA doesn’t care and actually supports an expansion into MIA. LATAM and Delta are also partners and LATAM is still hoping for Delta to expand into MIA. However, there’s no question that Delta will turn MIA into a likely focus city and if it’s not, it’ll be damn close to one. Plans may be on hold for now but once things start looking better, don’t be surprised to see Delta announce a fair amount of routes from MIA.

Which is exactly what I just said.

ContinentalEWR wrote:

Miami wrote:

ContinentalEWR wrote:

Wonder of the B6 additions, help blunt DL's aspirations in MIA? The LATAM partnership is there, but all the adds may trigger a pullback in DL's ambitions as yields for them may end up being diluted. I am not counting DL out. It's a much smarter c-suite and a better run airline on a number of fronts over AA, B6, and WN, but DL is seeing its ambitions under assault in a lot of places right now. So, I think AA doesn't really care about B6 adding more in MIA, as for now, it may help it.

AA and JetBlue are partners. AA doesn’t care and actually supports an expansion into MIA. LATAM and Delta are also partners and LATAM is still hoping for Delta to expand into MIA. However, there’s no question that Delta will turn MIA into a likely focus city and if it’s not, it’ll be damn close to one. Plans may be on hold for now but once things start looking better, don’t be surprised to see Delta announce a fair amount of routes from MIA.

Which is exactly what I just said.

I didn’t “exactly” say what you said. Not even close.

And the expansion of Southwest continues. Daily to St. Louis starts on May 9th.

American will add mainline on a bunch of routes that historically have been Eagle. This includes Cleveland, Indianapolis, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Richmond. Maybe others?

In response to jetBlue, American will triple capacity between Miami and Hartford from daily to thrice daily starting June 6th.

And Eastern will begin Miami-Montevideo on June 3rd, operating 4x a week.

I have reliably been hearing an Alaska Airlines return is imminent. From Seattle and possible Los Angeles.

MAH4546 wrote:

I have reliably been hearing an Alaska Airlines return is imminent. From Seattle and possible Los Angeles.

I had assumed AS would close FLL and shift to MIA when OW membership and AA agreement were made. But I understand they have an important corporate contract in Seattle that requires FLL be connected with SEA. However, everything else shifting to MIA would make sense and of course a MIA-SEA run to compliment AA's service.

Ironically, AA jumping on FLL-LAX again probably spells doom for FLL-LAX on AS.

Also have to wonder how much NK's rather aggressive FLL expansion of late is impacting B6 and WN 's gravitation toward MIA. I am thinking WN will pull down more FLL flying in th near future and B6 probably halts any further expansion. FLL might be the busiest airport in the country with a ULCC as the market leader and that may chase everyone else away. Maybe it won't but I have noticed NK's market share creeping up over the last two years and now they are much larger than WN or B6 in terms of passenger counts for the first time, I believe ever.

Irony of my last post being I thought that NK would abandon FLL completely for MIA a few years ago and fight a one front war as a ULCC against a legacy network carrier in AA rather than fighting two LCCs at FLL. As of now it appears fighting the LCC's in FLL was the right call and they chased the other ULCC completely to MIA and are chasing the LCC's down there now also. Have to give Spirit credit, at least in south Florida they've been doing something right.

I don’t see a world where AS abandons Fort Lauderdale. Still important to serve on its own. And whether served from FLL or MIA, LAX is very important market for AS to have metal service from its LA hub.

Also to note, AA resumes Miami to Barcelona on Saturday. This is the first non-London Europe route AA has flown from Miami in roughly a year and will be the only nonstop connection between Barcelona and North America for the time being.

MIAFLLPBIFlyer wrote:

Irony of my last post being I thought that NK would abandon FLL completely for MIA a few years ago and fight a one front war as a ULCC against a legacy network carrier in AA rather than fighting two LCCs at FLL. As of now it appears fighting the LCC's in FLL was the right call and they chased the other ULCC completely to MIA and are chasing the LCC's down there now also. Have to give Spirit credit, at least in south Florida they've been doing something right.

If you take a look at yesterday, NK was at 86 flights, B6 at 68 flights and WN at 49 flights. That doesn't mean it will remain this way forever, but it sure looks like NK is taking this opportunity to gain strength. Long term, I don't see what FLL offers to WN more than MIA. I expect the flight count to FLL & MIA grow a lot closer for WN. Those northeast flights to FLL were always poor performers for WN. Their FLL operation were basically supported by good performance to middle of the country where it faced no direct competition. With NK in these markets now, WN won't really have many easy routes left. So I expect them to pull out of even more FLL markets and add more to MIA.

I don't expect B6 to go anywhere even if the MIA additions have been a huge success. A lot of their recent changes with BE fare class probably had NK in mind. Right now, their focus is basically NY/NJ. there is not much they can do at FLL until probably second half of next year. So at least for the next couple of years, I expect NK to have the most flights out of FLL. NK will certainly be serving the most destinations. They have all the large and medium markets covered now. Long term, who knows. What is the gate situation like at FLL? How many gates do they have? That would probably be the limitation to how much NK can grow at FLL. I would imagine WN will sublease some of its gates if it decides that FLL is no longer its Latam gateway.

tphuang wrote:

MIAFLLPBIFlyer wrote:

Irony of my last post being I thought that NK would abandon FLL completely for MIA a few years ago and fight a one front war as a ULCC against a legacy network carrier in AA rather than fighting two LCCs at FLL. As of now it appears fighting the LCC's in FLL was the right call and they chased the other ULCC completely to MIA and are chasing the LCC's down there now also. Have to give Spirit credit, at least in south Florida they've been doing something right.

If you take a look at yesterday, NK was at 86 flights, B6 at 68 flights and WN at 49 flights. That doesn't mean it will remain this way forever, but it sure looks like NK is taking this opportunity to gain strength. Long term, I don't see what FLL offers to WN more than MIA. I expect the flight count to FLL & MIA grow a lot closer for WN. Those northeast flights to FLL were always poor performers for WN. Their FLL operation were basically supported by good performance to middle of the country where it faced no direct competition. With NK in these markets now, WN won't really have many easy routes left. So I expect them to pull out of even more FLL markets and add more to MIA.

I don't expect B6 to go anywhere even if the MIA additions have been a huge success. A lot of their recent changes with BE fare class probably had NK in mind. Right now, their focus is basically NY/NJ. there is not much they can do at FLL until probably second half of next year. So at least for the next couple of years, I expect NK to have the most flights out of FLL. NK will certainly be serving the most destinations. They have all the large and medium markets covered now. Long term, who knows. What is the gate situation like at FLL? How many gates do they have? That would probably be the limitation to how much NK can grow at FLL. I would imagine WN will sublease some of its gates if it decides that FLL is no longer its Latam gateway.

FLL a WN to LATAM gateway? Huh? SJO, MBJ, CUN and SJU are the only destinations in the Caribbean and Central America that WN serves from FLL and pretty sure WN doesn't consider it a "LATAM" gateway. They fly to 40+ destinations out of FLL when you include seasonal services. They're pretty big at FLL like everyone else. Not sure what your point is.

ContinentalEWR wrote:

tphuang wrote:

MIAFLLPBIFlyer wrote:

Irony of my last post being I thought that NK would abandon FLL completely for MIA a few years ago and fight a one front war as a ULCC against a legacy network carrier in AA rather than fighting two LCCs at FLL. As of now it appears fighting the LCC's in FLL was the right call and they chased the other ULCC completely to MIA and are chasing the LCC's down there now also. Have to give Spirit credit, at least in south Florida they've been doing something right.

If you take a look at yesterday, NK was at 86 flights, B6 at 68 flights and WN at 49 flights. That doesn't mean it will remain this way forever, but it sure looks like NK is taking this opportunity to gain strength. Long term, I don't see what FLL offers to WN more than MIA. I expect the flight count to FLL & MIA grow a lot closer for WN. Those northeast flights to FLL were always poor performers for WN. Their FLL operation were basically supported by good performance to middle of the country where it faced no direct competition. With NK in these markets now, WN won't really have many easy routes left. So I expect them to pull out of even more FLL markets and add more to MIA.

I don't expect B6 to go anywhere even if the MIA additions have been a huge success. A lot of their recent changes with BE fare class probably had NK in mind. Right now, their focus is basically NY/NJ. there is not much they can do at FLL until probably second half of next year. So at least for the next couple of years, I expect NK to have the most flights out of FLL. NK will certainly be serving the most destinations. They have all the large and medium markets covered now. Long term, who knows. What is the gate situation like at FLL? How many gates do they have? That would probably be the limitation to how much NK can grow at FLL. I would imagine WN will sublease some of its gates if it decides that FLL is no longer its Latam gateway.

FLL a WN to LATAM gateway? Huh? SJO, MBJ, CUN and SJU are the only destinations in the Caribbean and Central America that WN serves from FLL and pretty sure WN doesn't consider it a "LATAM" gateway. They fly to 40+ destinations out of FLL when you include seasonal services. They're pretty big at FLL like everyone else. Not sure what your point is.

It was pretty well known that they were building FLL up as their gateway to Latin America back a few years ago and they only started pulling back in summer of 2019.
https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/southwe ... ocus-city/
https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/05/2 ... ing-shape/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/todayint ... y/3989343/

If you don't consider FLL to be their latam gateway, that just shows how much they have fallen in that market.

MAH4546 wrote:

And the expansion of Southwest continues. Daily to St. Louis starts on May 9th.

American will add mainline on a bunch of routes that historically have been Eagle. This includes Cleveland, Indianapolis, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Richmond. Maybe others?

In response to jetBlue, American will triple capacity between Miami and Hartford from daily to thrice daily starting June 6th.

And Eastern will begin Miami-Montevideo on June 3rd, operating 4x a week.

I have reliably been hearing an Alaska Airlines return is imminent. From Seattle and possible Los Angeles.

Great news from Southwest. They have no plans to stop as they are having great success.

As for Alaska Airlines, I can confirm that they are working towards starting service later this year. An announcement is expected and could be as early as March 31st when they join OneWorld.

Per Ishrion, WN is also starting AUS-MIA.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1458639&start=150#p22711241

Brickell305 wrote:

Per Ishrion, WN is also starting AUS-MIA.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1458639&start=150#p22711241

Daily 737-MAX8 starts June 6th.

I bet we keep seeing a lot more B6 and WN flying, especially come late fall.

Avianca to resume San Jose (Costa Rica) – Miami from July 1, 2021. 1 daily, Airbus A320.

This route was last served until January 2014

American Airlines will fly the Boeing 777-300ER 3x daily between MIA-LAX from May 6, 2021 - June 2, 2021.

Miami wrote:

Avianca to resume San Jose (Costa Rica) – Miami from July 1, 2021. 1 daily, Airbus A320.

This route was last served until January 2014

Also resuming Miami-San Pedro Sula the day after, July 2nd, which I believe was discontinued just pre-COVID.