AvTalk 226: Contaminated powder and a single piece of chicken

AVT 226 Transcript
EPISODE 266
[00:00:08] IP: Hello and welcome to episode 226 of AvTalk. I am Ian Petchenik. Here as always
with –
[00:00:17] JR: Jason Rabinowitz. Hello, Ian.
[00:00:19] IP: Hello, Jason. How are you, sir?
[00:00:21] JR: I'm good. It's hot here in the greater Washington, D.C. area. But it's nice and
cold in my hotel room. I'm happy.
[00:00:29] IP: That's good to hear. Yeah, Jason's traveling once again to the lovely area of
Dulles this week. We've got a kind of abbreviated show. But we'll see how much we can get out
of it. Not a huge week as far as goings on go. We're in the doldrums of summer, which I'm
enjoying a bit. It's hot here today and about 200 humidity. The weather report concludes, thusly.
[00:00:54] JR: It's hot everywhere except the Southern hemisphere. They get a pass right now.
[00:00:58] IP: Yes. That is true. But before we kind of dive into the news. Jason, the movie
Midnight Run recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. Have you ever seen Midnight Run?
[00:01:08] JR: I don't think so.
[00:01:09] IP: It's a great movie and it's definitely one of my favorite movies that involves
extensive aviation scenes. And there's three really good aviation-centric scenes. But the movie's
not ostensibly about aviation. That got me thinking about some of your favorite movies that have
aviation in them but aren't like airplane or airport or focused on the actual plane itself or
something like that. Just kind of tangentially. But they're really good.
[00:01:40] JR: So, not Die Hard 2 taking place entirely here at the beautiful Dulles International
Airport.
© 2023 AvTalk 1
AVT 226 Transcript
[00:01:45] IP: I think Die Hard 2 would – there's so much of the movie taking place in the actual
airport. I'm sure that that one might not count. So something to think about if you have nothing
else off the top of your head. If you have any tangentially-related aviation movies, email us at
podcast@fr24.com.
But I saw that come across that it was celebrating its 35th anniversary. And I remembered
there's a great – a really good scene with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in a 747 in first-
class. It's a really good scene. I'll put a link in the show notes to see. And you guys can check it
out.
[00:02:19] JR: You'll have to give me a heads up next time to think about that question.
[00:02:22] IP: No. I didn't want to. Because I wanted it to be – I wanted to see if you had any
that popped immediately to mind. But now you can go and think about it.
[00:02:27] JR: No. My answer is still Die Hard 2.
[00:02:30] IP: All right. We'll stick with it then. We've got a bit of a problem. And by we, I mean,
RTX, which is the company formerly known as Raytheon, which is the parent company of Pratt
& Whitney. Because yesterday they announced that they are recalling up to 1200 of the 3000
PW1100G engines that they have thus far produced.
[00:02:54] JR: Huh. A recall is not a term we hear too often.
[00:02:58] IP: No. And it's not like stop flying, take them off the wings and send us the engines
back. It's not a total recall.
[00:03:06] JR: Ah. I get it. There're no airplanes in that movie.
[00:03:10] IP: None. But the issue here is that the high-pressure discs possibly contaminated
from the manufacturing process. There's a powder that goes into the metal as they manufacture
these high-pressure turbine discs. And there is the possibility that many of these discs are
contaminated.
© 2023 AvTalk 2
AVT 226 Transcript
And so, they're saying that they need to be inspected much sooner than their initial modeling
had shown. They're saying 1200 of the 3000 engines. Already 10% of the PW1100G fleet, which
powers the A320neo, has been grounded for fixing those defect issues and then not being able
to get them into service as quickly as they want to because there's just a lack of qualified
service technicians.
But on that front, there's actually some good news. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aero Engines,
or MHIAEL, they put in the acronym in their naming. Though, I'm not sure why.
[00:04:22] JR: I'm not sure it helps really at all that.
[00:04:24] IP: Yeah. That doesn't – I'm not, "Oh, MHIAEL. Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. Of
course." They are now certified. They're performed their first maintenance visit on the
PW1100G-JM. And the -JM has been around. But we don't really use it. And I thought to myself,
"What does the JM stand for?" Jason, do you know?
[00:04:46] JR: Just maintenance. It's one of the Pratt & Whitney engines where you can only do
maintenance on it. You can't ever fly it.
[00:04:55] IP: Oh, no. No, you didn't. The – just maintenance. That's – I don't know why I'm
laughing. This is –
[00:05:04] JR: Not the answer you expected I'm sure.
[00:05:07] IP: It's not. JM is a combination of Japan Aero Engines Corporation, MTU Aero
Engines, which collaborated to work on the engine initially when it was announced. The JM
recognizes their collaboration with Pratt & Whitney on this particular engine. There's your bit of –
I don't know if it's useless. But near useless aviation trivia for the day.
Other Pratt & Whitney news is that they have taken for the quarter a $181 million charge
because of Go First's cessation of operations. The RTXs did not specify the airline by name. But
© 2023 AvTalk 3
AVT 226 Transcript
they said a major customer that went and said – there were enough hints for, I think, anyone to
work out that it was in fact Go First.
[00:05:57] JR: Didn't even need to read between the lines on that one.
[00:05:59] IP: No. No. There were clear hints. Go First is currently grounded. But they have
gotten the go-ahead to restart their operations, which sounds great.
[00:06:17] JR: Might be a little too late for that.
[00:06:19] IP: Yeah. Here's the thing. They've gotten the approval for their plan. But the
approval from India's Director General of Civil Aviation includes a number of stipulations. And
those stipulations are going to be hard to meet.
[00:06:37] JR: What are they?
[00:06:38] IP: First, they have to secure interim funding.
[00:06:41] JR: Okay. That's a tricky one.
[00:06:42] IP: That's I think that probably the biggest one or at least the second biggest one. As
we talked about I think a couple of weeks ago at this point, Go First put out a tender that said,
"Hey, does anyone want to buy us?" That tender is out until the 9th of August. If you're
interested in purchasing Go First, you have until the 9th of August to express your interest.
They say that they will publish a list of who wants to buy them no less than 10 days later. At that
point, there will be a round of bidding and maybe somebody else will own Go First when it's all
said and done. That's the first thing. They have to secure funding.
But they also have to have the civil aviation authority in India approve all of their roots. And all of
the aircraft that they want to bring back into service must be airworthy. Makes sense. They have
to pass inspection. Makes sense. And they have to complete a satisfactory test flight. That all
makes sense.
© 2023 AvTalk 4
AVT 226 Transcript
Then there's the fact that all of the legal challenges to their restart of operations needs to be
resolved. So, that becomes very difficult because Go First lessors filed this week to deregister
all of the airlines' aircraft.
[00:08:06] JR: All of them. That's not great. That's probably going to take a little while to
resolve.
[00:08:11] IP: It doesn't seem like they are particularly interested in working things out. They
don't seem to have a lot of confidence in Go First's ability to return to the air. And the DGCA
received applications from lessors for their 54 aircraft, 49 A320neos and five COs so hat lessors
could in fact get their aircraft back.
It doesn't look like Go First – it seems to be, and as days go by, a longer and longer shot that
they will get back into the air. I don't think barring some sort of financial miracle. Perhaps some
sort of white knight riding in and rescuing the airline or a merger or something. I don't see Go
First returning to the skies anytime soon at least in its current form. I guess we'll continue to
follow the story.
[00:09:09] JR: Too bad.
[00:09:09] IP: Yeah. It really is too bad. The model was good. And I think like when you write a
book about aviation in the teens and 20s, and I'm sure Jason's already deep into his fourth
chapter of said book, you're going to look at Airlines like Norwegian and go first and go, "They
had a good idea. They stretched a little too far. And then, or also, something outside their control
really just kind of was the death now."
[00:09:42] JR: Not to harp back on Norwegian. That was definitely the case for Norwegian
where external factors really crushed their hopes and dreams and they never quite recovered.
But Go First is just almost purely attributable to this one thing. Engines do not work on their
aircraft. They cannot fly half their fleet. They cannot make money. Run out of money. Lessors
want their airplanes back. End of story.
© 2023 AvTalk 5
AVT 226 Transcript
But it really seems like the terms and conditions to bring them back seem really stacked against
them at this point almost to the point where it's very unlikely to happen.
[00:10:18] IP: And I completely understand the DGCAs position here, where we don't want an
airline to restart operations, to get people back, to have airplanes that might not be safe, to start
selling tickets to the public to only then two weeks later say, "Okay, we're out of money again."
And then how many more people have been negatively impacted?
[00:10:37] JR: And it's not like Norwegian, to bring them up again, where they flew a little too
close to the sun, I guess you could say, and try to expand their ambition with long haul and then
the 787 issues happen. In this case, Go First, all they did was fly mostly A320neos regionally or
even domestically in India. And it's not like they have another operation to fall back on. Because
Norwegian still exists. It still operates. We just talked about them a couple weeks ago
purchasing another carrier. In this case, there is nothing for Go First to fall back to except – I
don't know. Maybe selling their in-flight catered meals on the ground. We've seen airlines do
that to make some money during COVID. But that probably won't pay the leases for all of those
aircraft.
[00:11:24] IP: No. I don't think that's going to work out in the long run for them. Let's head to
Italy where a Delta Airlines 767 flew through a hail storm shortly after departing Milan earlier this
week on the 24th of July. So, on Monday. Delta flight 185 from Milan to New York diverted to
Rome after flying through a hailstorm on departure and landed pretty busted up.
The photos of the damage showed a completely smashed radome, leading edges of both wings,
punctures in the right wing, damage to the engines and the windscreen. But fortunately, no one
was injured.
[00:12:03] JR: It's a 767. It's just a flesh wound. No big deal.
[00:12:06] IP: They could have made it to New York.
[00:12:07] JR: Yeah. I'd love to know. And I'm sure there will be an investigation to look into why
the crew either chose to fly through this storm or ended up having to fly through this storm. I'm
© 2023 AvTalk 6
AVT 226 Transcript
sure there might be air traffic control. Reasons why they just were able to deviate around it. But
typically, we don't see damage quite that extensive. Usually, it's, "Oh, maybe the windshield is
busted or the radome, which is designed to crumple apart and break away, gets busted up." But
this damage is really quite extensive.
And we never want to say, "Oh, this aircraft is going to be scrapped." Because we'll be proven
wrong a million times when we say that. But this is an old aircraft. There may be a chance that
Delta doesn't even want to fix even if it can. We'll have to keep our eye on that.
[00:12:52] IP: It's only 26-years-old.
[00:12:54] JR: Oh, in that case, it's got another at least 15 years with Delta.
[00:12:58] IP: And then another 25 with Amazon or somebody else. Yeah.
[00:13:00] JR: With a cargo. Yeah. I think Delta said they're keeping them around until at least
another few years. I don't know. We'll see what happens with it. But it might be a while.
[00:13:11] IP: This particular incident happened pretty much right after takeoff. I mean, they
were still climbing. Things happened quickly. And I wonder if because they were still climbing if
the guidance from air traffic control on the climb out, if the weather was changing quickly. I'm not
exactly sure. But it'll be interesting to see why this happened or the particular circumstances
that led to this. Because it is quite rare these days to see an aircraft fly through a hailstorm quite
this bad. I mean, to see the radome completely smashed. Usually, if they fly through a hail, you
see some slight damage. But this is like a gaping hole in the radome. You can see the entire
weather radar.
[00:13:54] JR: Makes it easy to get in there and service it.
[00:13:57] IP: Yeah. It's a convertible now.
© 2023 AvTalk 7
AVT 226 Transcript
[00:14:00] JR: Yep. But thankfully, no one was injured. Not that you would think that anyone
would be injured in this situation. But we'll keep our eye on that aircraft. You know what? I'm
going to set an alert for this aircraft and see when or if it operates ever again.
[00:14:12] IP: All right. And just to let folks following along at home know, the aircraft itself is a
Boeing 767-300ER. The registration is N189erDN. There you go.
[00:14:30] JR: I've been on that aircraft. Now I have skin in the game here.
[00:14:32] IP: Now you have a vested interest.
[00:14:34] JR: Yes, I do. I flew it in 2016 from – it looks like JFK to Amsterdam. I have vested
interest in the life of this aircraft. I want to know.
[00:14:46] IP: Well, I guess we'll find out when it flies. It's going to have to fly again. They're not
going to leave it in Rome.
[00:14:51] JR: I mean, there have been situations where aircraft involved in incidents have
been scrapped at whatever airport they divert to. It happens. Although, it's exceptionally rare.
[00:15:00] IP: Fair enough. I just don't think they're going to leave it in Rome. That's all I'm
saying.
[00:15:04] JR: No.
[00:15:05] IP: All right. News out of Oshkosh this week. As the world's largest gathering of
aviation continues, there is news from NASA and Boeing this week. Jason, what's the bigger
news here? The kind of description of the program or the fact that the aircraft now has a livery?
What's your take on that?
[00:15:25] JR: Probably the description of the program. Because, dare I say, the livery is
lacking.
© 2023 AvTalk 8
AVT 226 Transcript
[00:15:30] IP: Allegiant-ish?
[00:15:31] JR: Yeah. It's kind of a hybrid Allegiant. Kind of I see Southwest in there with the
orange and the red.
[00:15:38] IP: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure what's going on here.
[00:15:39] JR: It's mostly Euro white. The paint is really just on the tail. It has a blue swoosh,
and an orange swoosh and a red swoosh. And it says X-66a on the tail. But the details of this
aircraft are far more interesting than the very uninspired paint. Tell us more.
[00:15:56] IP: Indeed, they are. The X66-A, formerly known as the Transonic Truss-Brace Wing
concept.
[00:16:04] JR: Oh, thank goodness, we got away from that.
[00:16:06] IP: Yes. Has officially moved to it's a real plane. The X Delta MD-90 that had been
sitting in the California desert moved to a different part of the California desert. Now registered
N930TB. The aircraft has moved to the Palmdale, California site where it will be modified over
the next few years. They will chop off the tail-mounted engines. They will shorten the aircraft
and then they will add very, very, very long wings.
This particular craft will end up with 145-foot wingspan that is supported by the truss-brace so
that the wings can be long and very, very thin. And then they will initially fit, here we go again,
Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbofan engines. And then as we talked about a few weeks,
ago as the development of the CFM open fan RISE program proceeds, the aircraft will
eventually be fitted with the CFM RISE open fan engines. That much we all knew.
Some new information about what's going on here is that Boeing has formed a coalition of
airlines that are going to be involved from the get-go with not necessarily the design of the
aircraft, but inputs into things like operational efficiencies. How the aircraft handles? How it's
going to be maintained? Because it'll be the airline's maintenance personnel maintaining the
© 2023 AvTalk 9
AVT 226 Transcript
actual aircraft. And airport compatibility. Because the aircraft itself is going to have a very long
wingspan. So how does it fit into the airports of now and the airports of the future?
[00:17:53] JR: Poorly by the look of it. They're going to have to figure that out.
[00:17:58] IP: They'll figure that out. So that group will include Alaska Airlines, American
Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. That group will follow the
development. They will have the availability of a simulator as things progress so that their pilots
can fly a simulator of the X-66A and understand how the aircraft handles, and make suggestions
for improvements and things like that.
It's happening. They've got the airplane. They're going to start work on it. They've got a group
that they're putting together so that they can make it as good of a plane as they can from the
get-go, which makes sense to me. And glad to see you guys are doing it.
[00:18:43] JR: Yeah. And actual flight testing is slated for 2028 and 2029 out of NASA's
Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. I would very much like to be
there for the first takeoff of this Franken plane. Just looking at the picture, it's just all wrong. It's
an MD-90 with like two sets of wings. The engines are wing-mounted. They're not in the rear. It
just looks weird back there at T-tail. It's all weird.
[00:19:11] IP: There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on.
[00:19:13] JR: And I encourage you just go look at the picture. None of this makes sense. But I
hope we get some good lessons out of this program that can be deployed to an actual new
build, not McDonnell Douglas-built aircraft.
[00:19:27] IP: That it'll work differently than that. And it'll look interesting. And we'll leave it at
that. But hopefully, they have some sort of livery redesign contest. Because –
[00:19:37] JR: Yeah. As long as the end result isn't take all of the MD-90s out of the desert and
modify them all. Hopefully, we actually get to the point where Boeing can, or I guess Airbus,
© 2023 AvTalk 10
AVT 226 Transcript
create a new aircraft based off this. And we're not just going to pluck all the McDonnell Douglas
trash out of the desert.
[00:19:54] IP: All of the MD-90s that are stored get this treatment.
[00:19:57] JR: And 717s as well. I guess all of this could apply to 717s, which are still very
much in service. I just saw one today. It was weird. I guess I could apply to that as well. So
maybe they get a second lease on life. I don't know. I hope not. But that would be interesting.
Absolutely.
[00:20:13] IP: All right. Well, there is a new final rule coming into place in the US. But this will
affect not only domestic US airlines but also foreign air carriers. This will affect plane makers as
they introduce new aircraft.
The final rule is regarding accessible lavatories on single-aisle aircraft. For many flyers with
reduced mobility who are either in need of assistance or using a wheelchair of any kind, using
the lavatory on a single-aisle aircraft is incredibly difficult at best.
These new rules would make it so that any new single-aisle aircraft large enough needs to have
a lavatory large enough to carry a passenger with a disability and an attendant. And then here's
where it gets interesting, both equivalent in size to a 95th percentile male. Two very big people
to approach, enter and maneuver within as necessary to use the aircraft lavatory.
And so, this is a final rule. There has already been public comment periods. And this goes into
effect 60 days after it's entered into the federal register, which I believe is today. In 60 days, this
becomes a final DoT rule. And any new aircraft will need to have lavatory that is large enough to
accommodate those requirements.
[00:21:39] JR: That's good. Doesn't take effect until 2035 for new build aircraft. But I wish it
were sooner. Because I'm sure many of you who are listening to this have fought with the
lavatories on board many single-aisle aircraft today. Even with foamability, you can barely turn
around. Let alone wash more than one hand in the sink at a time.
© 2023 AvTalk 11
AVT 226 Transcript
And there are solutions to this. Airbus cabin flex or Spaceflex, I forgot the exact name of it,
combines multiple lavatories in the rear of the aircraft to create one accessible aircraft. That is
very much an option for airlines. That is not a standard configuration. At least there are some
interim measures until then. But it's good to see this formally written down for airlines that you
must adhere to this rule by 2035, which is a bit sooner.
[00:22:31] IP: Yeah. Speaking of Airbus, Jason, they got some not great news this week.
[00:22:35] JR: Yeah. I think we all kind of saw this coming. It's been alluded to for a long time.
But Reuters came out with an exclusive this week. Headline; Airbus A321XLR jet faces range
gap after design safeguards. And we've talked about this before, where what makes the XLR
the XLR is an extra fuel tank under the cabin area towards the rear of the aircraft. And there
were issues about insulation over the very cold fuel tank possibly not meeting fireproof
standards or something along those lines. So they had to add a significant amount or maybe not
a significant amount, but an amount of weight.
The article says two industry sources said the cumulative total to the changes to the structure
have added some 700 to 800 kilos to the weight of the aircraft compared with the previous 200
to 300 estimate. And that could potentially trim the maximum range of the aircraft down by 200
nautical miles, which is not the end of the world. Realistically, most, if not all Airlines were never
going to push the maximum, maximum range of this aircraft.
But it goes on to say that Airbus is offering to move some of these Airlines up to an A330neo,
which seems kind of like in unserious offer. Like, "Sorry. This narrow body can't do the absolute
full range we promise. So how about this much larger aircraft you didn't want in the first place?"
I don't know. But it's not a huge hit to the XLR. But it is noticeable.
[00:24:07] IP: Yeah. So it would take the range from what? 4,700 nautical miles down to 4,500
nautical miles? And like Jason said, it's not huge. But it's significant enough where it definitely
takes the headline away a bit.
[00:24:20] JR: It all adds up.
© 2023 AvTalk 12
AVT 226 Transcript
[00:24:22] IP: Yeah. Exactly.
[00:24:23] JR: On top of that, if you're departing from a hot airport, which seems to be
everywhere now, or a high airport or there's headwinds, that stuff is going to matter. There are
times where that 200 nautical miles taken off the maximum range is going to matter
operationally. But the aircraft is still looking like an absolute unchallenged champ in the industry
right now. I don't think Airbus has all that much to worry about at least externally.
[00:24:51] IP: And at least for right now.
[00:24:52] JR: Yeah.
[00:24:54] IP: Jason?
[00:24:54] JR: Yes.
[00:24:55] IP: Let us close the show on – well, I guess, is it good – I don't know if this is a good
news story, a bad news story. A bad news story that became a good story?
[00:25:05] JR: It's interesting it's news. It’s thinking on your feet.
[00:25:08] IP: It's new.
[00:25:08] JR: It's news.
[00:25:09] IP: Yes. Thinking on your feet – the thinking on your feet award of the week.
[00:25:13] JR: Yes. Goes to British Airways? That's unusual.
[00:25:18] IP: What?
[00:25:18] JR: But. Yeah, this one comes to us from one mile at a time who picked up on this
story that BA operates some interesting fights in the Caribbean. This one was going from Turks
© 2023 AvTalk 13
AVT 226 Transcript
and Caicos, then to Nassau Bahamas, and then to London, England. And it turns out that there
was some sort of unfortunate mishap in Turks and Caicos where the catering went bad for the
flight. There was an issue with the refrigeration of the meals. And if there's an issue with the
refrigeration, you can't use those meals. They were all thrown out at an outstation in somewhere
small like Turks and Caicos. They can't just magically spin up 250 additional meals out of
nowhere. That's just not going to happen. Ian, do you know what the quick-thinking ground crew
in Turks and Caicos did?
[00:26:05] IP: I mean, I do. Because I'm looking at the –
[00:26:06] JR: You do. But what's cool –
[00:26:10] IP: Because I'm looking at the article. But Jason, tell me, what did they do?
[00:26:15] JR: They picked up their phone and called the nearby KFC and ordered everybody
one piece of chicken for the 12-hour flight to London. I'm guessing it's the most that this poor
little KFC in Turks and Caicos could manage. It's probably not too often they get a hurry last
minute call saying, "We need chicken for 250 people and we need it now." They probably ran
this little KFC supply dry.
But I think that's quite interesting. Because if given the choice between you're not going to have
the catered meals, but you can have a piece of chicken. Or we could take a 12-hour delay
because the flight crew is going to time out and then we'll leave in the morning and you're all
going to have to sleep an eat on the floor of the airport. I'm taking that piece of chicken.
[00:27:02] IP: Yeah. I mean, fly me and my piece of chicken to London. I'm with you. Let's do it.
[00:27:05] JR: Yeah. And I think the chicken was served on like napkins. Because they didn't
even have the like plates or the silverware or the dining set because that's all a part of the
catering kit I believe. At least the one picture I see is just this girl in business class holding a
piece of chicken on a napkin.
© 2023 AvTalk 14
AVT 226 Transcript
What the article does not go into, if there was any compensation for passengers, which I hope
there is some sort of compensation. Because if I put booked –
[00:27:31] IP: Sorry. We didn't feed you anything but a piece of chicken.
[00:27:33] JR: If I booked a many thousand dollar business class ticket and was fed one piece
of chicken on a napkin, I'd probably want some compensation, if not an outright refund. But I'd
still be happy that I got where I wanted to go.
[00:27:47] IP: The thing that gets me is always like how things come about? Like, who has an
idea to do something? And so, what British Airways station manager or catering person in Turks
and Caicos, it was like, "How do we –" they're like standing around and they're like, "My cousin
works at KFC. Let's call him."
[00:28:10] JR: You do what you got to do.
[00:28:12] IP: I mean, I just thoroughly enjoy thinking about how these things come about and
how people come up with solutions to seemingly intractable problems.
[00:28:16] JR: And it's usually pizza.
[00:28:19] JR: Pizza is a lot easier to manage. Usually, when there's a fight delay, the captain
pulls out his corporate card or whatever and orders 15 pizzas. I'm a little surprised. But, hey, you
got to do what you got to do.
[00:28:30] IP: I mean, yeah, I'll take what I can get to get the flight out. You're aware of what
happened. Because it's a tag flight. Turks and Caicos go over to the Bahamas. The aircraft's
coming from that. Did they tell the passengers beforehand, like, "Hey, you should fill up, grab
some snacks, because there's only a piece of chicken waiting for you on the plane?"
[00:28:49] JR: Oh, I don't know. I hope so. There was probably – these little Caribbean airports
don't have all that much in the way of restaurants and dining options in some cases. If 250
people suddenly flood the available options, that might be a bit problematic.
© 2023 AvTalk 15
AVT 226 Transcript
[00:29:04] IP: All of the trail mix is gone.
[00:29:07] JR: All of the trail mix. You know what? Before we go in, there is some breaking
news, which happened before we stopped recording.
[00:29:12] IP: Ooh. I love breaking news. I love breaking news.
[00:29:16] JR: Yeah. If you're an airline passenger in the US in the last couple weeks, you know
that things have been rather tough flying in and out of New York or tougher than usual because
it's always kind of tough. But recently, United's had a really, really bad time operationally out of
Newark between the weather and the FAA issues. And general, just Newark being a terrible
airport for operations on a good day. And they recently said they were going to reduce their flight
schedule even further than they already did. And now we have some details on that.
The reductions, they say, impact less than 4% of travelers flying United out of Newark during a
time period. Most of which will be re-accommodated within two hours of their original arrival
time. Importantly, they are adjusting from about 410 daily flights down to 395. I'm not a huge
movement. But it's not nothing. No international flights are impacted. But most interestingly,
don't really know the reasoning for this. But they'll temporarily end service between Newark and
Honolulu through September 4th and our re-accommodating passengers in one of their other 12
daily flights to Honolulu from other hubs.
I find that one interesting because I'm pretty sure that's a morning departure where things are
kind of normal. But maybe they want to keep a spare aircraft at Newark for flights? I'm not really
sure. But there you go.
[00:30:37] IP: Yeah, that one – I did not think that would be one of the flights they cut.
[00:30:42] JR: No. That's a weird one. And that flight has been kind of unfortunate circumstance
flight for United recently. A couple weeks ago they had a spot where the fight was canceled for
days in a row because they did not have any aircraft to operate the fight. It's usually operated by
© 2023 AvTalk 16
AVT 226 Transcript
767-400 and they had too many out for retrofit of their new business class at once. And they just
did not have any aircraft to operate this fight.
But I guess if you're going to cancel a flight to Honolulu, doing that in the dead of summer is
probably the best time. Because I don't know how many New Yorkers are itching to go to
Honolulu in the high of summer rather than winter. But just an odd one to trim there. But I guess
they have their reasons. But no other markets will be exited, which is interesting.
[00:31:26] IP: Oh. Well, there you go.
[00:31:30] JR: Ithaca will still have its two daily flights or whatever.
[00:31:34] IP: Oh, thank goodness.
[00:31:35] JR: I know. Well, maybe not two. Maybe down to one. I don't know. It's probably be
zero. But Ithaca, Binghamton, all those little airports will still have their flights.
[00:31:44] IP: All right then. There you go. And breaking news before we stopped recording. I'll
take what I can get.
[00:31:50] JR: Just under the wire.
[00:31:52] IP: There you go. And with that bit, Jason, are you going to have chicken for dinner?
[00:31:57] JR: I am now.
[00:31:58] IP: That was my first thought, "I kind of want some fried chicken." But we'll see if
there's any food-related stories next week.
This has been episode 226 of AvTalk. I am Ian Petchenik. Here as always with –
[00:32:15] JR: Jason Rabinowitz. Thanks for listening.
© 2023 AvTalk 17
AVT 226 Transcript
[END]
© 2023 AvTalk 18