In today’s issue: Turkish Airlines returns to Kabul, Tragedy strikes in the skies, Virgin Atlantic gets sued, and Taylor Swift helps bring back travel demand in Australia.

A light news day but let’s dive in.

^{NETWORK PLANNING ROUNDUP}

🔵Hello Kabul 👋: Turkish Airlines is resuming flights to Kabul after suspending the route in August 2021. Turkish will be the third airline to return to Kabul and will operate the flight 4x weekly. In November 2023, FlyDubai became the first international carrier to resume flights to Afghanistan and Air Arabia restarted flights to Kabul this past January.

🔵Joining the fun: Southwest plans to apply for one of the five perimeter-exempt slots created as part of the FAA Reauthorization Bill. The airline is proposing adding service to Las Vegas and joins several other airlines that are also jockeying for the slots. Perimeter-exempt slots don't come around often, so it's not surprising to see this level of interest.

^{LEGAL ROUNDUP}

🔵Court date coming 👨‍⚖️: Over 200 former Virgin Atlantic cabin crew are suing the airline, claiming that it used COVID-19 as a pretext to get rid of older employees. An employment tribunal in London will start examining more than 200 cases in June 2024.

🔵Get your signs ready: The National Mediation Board declared that American Airlines flight attendants can go on strike as early as July if a new deal is not reached with the airline. While the flight attendants have been eligible for a new contract since 2019, negotiations were delayed because of COVID and, since resuming, have yet to result in a new deal. At the current pay scale, some new flight attendants are eligible for food stamps.

^{LOOSE ENDS}

🔵Tragedy in the skies: A Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence that left one passenger dead and dozens injured, some critically. An unbelievably tragic event.

🔵Taylor Swift effect: The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) stated that passenger numbers in February 2024 surpassed February 2019 levels, while passenger numbers in March 2024 were at almost 99% of March 2019 levels.

The ACCC attributed a good portion of the recent surge in demand to Taylor Swift's recent seven-show tour in Australia. Zooming out, it seems that travel demand has more or less recovered post-pandemic in the broader Asia-Pacific region.

📺️ Things I’m Watching  

🔵Check out Jeb Brook’s review of Hawaiian Airline’s new 787 in economy and business class.

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