In today’s issue: El Al sets a record, Southwest gets sneaky, Etihad goes flat, and JetBlue opens a base in San Juan.

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🔵Going flat: Etihad, which expects to take delivery of 30-40 A321LRs starting in 2025, plans to install flat beds on the jets. The planes will feature 16 fully flat business class seats and 144 economy class seats. These planes will be the first Etihad narrow bodies to get flat bed seats. The airline plans to use the planes on thinner markets and markets where offering additional frequencies would be beneficial.

🔵Nothing to see here 🤫: Southwest quietly changed the cost of their Upgraded Boarding and Early Bird Check-In buy-ups:

• Upgraded Boarding, which gets you one of the first 15 boarding spots, will now cost between $30-$149 per passenger per segment, up from a max price of $80.

• Meanwhile, Early Bird Check-In, where passengers are automatically checked in 36 hours before their flight, will now cost between $15-$99 per passenger per segment, up from a max price of $25.

🔵New base: JetBlue plans to open a crew base by the end of the year in San Juan, where it is the largest carrier. The airline plans to station as many as 120 pilots and up to 325 flight attendants on the island over the next few years. The move will coincide with JetBlue’s planned service expansion from Puerto Rico to the United States, Caribbean, and Latin America. This is JetBlue’s first base outside the contiguous United States.

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🔵New record: El Al reported $738 million in revenue and $80.5 million in profits in Q1 2024, compared to $500 million in revenue and a $34.4 million net loss in Q1 2023. This was the carrier’s best-ever financial performance in a single quarter and came as the ongoing war has caused many foreign carriers to scale back or suspend service to Israel.

The airline carried 62% of all traffic to TLV in the quarter, and flight loads were an impressive 93%, up 8% YoY. El Al also benefited from increased cargo demand. The airline added 15% seat capacity in Q1 but cautioned that they can only add so much more capacity going forward. As a result, the CEO of El Al encouraged foreign carriers to resume flying to Israel. 

Grain of salt 🧂: While they posted impressive results, El Al is currently under investigation by the Israeli Competition Authority, which is probing whether the airline took advantage of the ongoing situation to price gouge.

🔵Updated seat map: IndiGo will indicate where female passengers are seated during check-in to help female passengers avoid sitting next to unwanted men. When female passengers check in, they will be able to see which other seats are occupied by females on the seat map.

As long as a reservation has at least one female on it, the entire reservation will be able to see which seats are occupied by females. According to a survey conducted by the Indian government, almost 31% of women in India have faced physical or sexual violence.

🔵Making investments: As part of the FAA Reauthorization Act, Congress will distribute $80 million over the next four years to assist with pilot workforce development, representing a substantial increase from the $25 million allocated in 2018.

This funding is part of the FAA’s Aviation Workforce Development Grants program, which provides support to aviation-related education programs. The $80 million is part of a broader $240 million pool intended to also recruit aircraft mechanics and aviation manufacturing workers.

📺️ THINGS I’M WATCHING

🔵Riyadh Air's Chief Commercial Officer talks about the airline's commercial strategy.

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