Delta Cuts Summer Routes, Two LAX Near-Misses in One Night, and Pilots Are Meowing on the Emergency Radio

Delta Air Lines is suspending several routes this summer as jet fuel prices soar, (there’s a “sore” pun somewhere in there, drop yours in the Comments section), LAX had not one but two runway near-misses in a single evening, JetBlue’s own founder is warning the airline might go bankrupt, and two pilots were caught meowing at each other on the emergency radio frequency.

My neck is already sore from shaking my head.

Delta Suspends Several Summer Routes

Fuel prices are ugly right now — jet fuel hit nearly $4.80 a gallon last week — and Delta is responding by pulling back on some summer flying. Here’s what’s going away and when:

• JFK → Memphis (MEM): June 7–September 7
• JFK → St. Louis (STL): June 7–September 7
• DTW → Reykjavik (KEF): May 7–July 6
• BOS → Nassau (NAS): July 18–September 5
• SEA → Cancún (CUN): June 2–November 8

If you’re booked on any of these, check your email. Especially given that this post was published on a Schedule Change Saturday. Delta should be reaching out with rebooking options. The Reykjavik cut is the one that stings — that’s a bucket-list route for a lot of travelers, and losing it through peak summer isn’t great. The Cancún suspension running through November is also notable. That’s a long pull-back.

Two Near-Misses. One Night. One Airport. (LAX, Obviously.)

On the evening of April 8, a Gulfstream G650ER business jet crossed onto an active runway at LAX — against a clear hold-short instruction it had already acknowledged — forcing an Air France 777-300ER bound for Paris to execute a high-speed rejected takeoff. The 777 stopped safely. No injuries. FAA investigation underway.

Then, about an hour later, a Frontier Airlines A321 had to slam the brakes after two service trucks wandered onto its runway.

Two runway incursions. One airport. One evening. Our friend Charlie Mortling at avgeeks.aero has been covering aviation safety topics really well lately — worth adding to your reading list if you haven’t already.

Meanwhile, the LAX People Mover Is Running Trains Nobody Can Ride

This could be one of the most L.A. things ever: trains running empty while cars are stuck in traffic below them.

Yes.

Starting this week, empty train cars will run along LAX’s 2.25-mile elevated track. They’re testing the automated people mover — it has to complete 30 consecutive days without a “hiccup” before it can open to passengers. (A single door that doesn’t open properly counts as a hiccup. A train breakdown resets the clock entirely. Whichever politicians benefit the most from delays will be there to mess with the trains, I assure you.)

LAX and its contractor are in a beef over $36 million in electrical repair costs. The contractor has threatened to hit the road (because they can’t ride the train, duh) if it’s not resolved. The train — originally supposed to open in 2023 — still has no official opening date. The World Cup starts in June.

Oh, and the Super Bowl is here in February.

This is beyond Oh, COVID delayed the project.

Just, you know, in case you were wondering how LA is doing.

United Quietly Kicked Most Star Alliance Partners Out of the Polaris Lounge

No announcement. No warning. Effective April 14, United restricted Polaris Lounge access to its own passengers and a short list of joint venture partners. If you were planning to use a Polaris Lounge before your Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, TAP, or EVA Air flight — that’s no longer available to you.

I’m old enough to remember when Polaris made missiles and snowmobiles before they got into the airport lounge business. 😉

The reasoning isn’t hard to follow: the lounges have been overcrowded, and United is prioritizing its best customers (and its joint-venture relationships). Still, doing it with zero notice? Really?

JetBlue’s Founder Says JetBlue Might Go Bankrupt — and Nobody Wants to Buy It

This came from a leaked recording (oops) of Breeze Airways founder David Neeleman talking to his pilots — so he’s not exactly an insider at JetBlue anymore (he hasn’t been since 2008).

But, hey, people talk (and meow. More on that in a minute.).

But his math isn’t easy to dismiss. With jet fuel around $4.50 a gallon, a JP Morgan analyst projected JetBlue losing $1.3 billion this year, which would push its total debt toward $9 billion. Neeleman said United has privately told him they’re not interested in taking that on. Same with Southwest and Alaska.

If you’ve got TrueBlue points sitting around, I’m not saying panic. But I’m also not saying don’t have a plan.

Southwest Wants Lounges. Its Best Customers Don’t.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said this week that he wants to stop “sending passengers to competitors” — and that airport lounges are part of the answer. The problem: Southwest’s actual top customers, the ones who fly mostly short-haul domestic routes, said in no uncertain terms on Reddit that lounges aren’t a perk they’d use.

Listen, Bob. I don’t run an airline. But I fly your airline — and used to enjoy it a hell of a lot more than I do now.

People who want lounges and fly Southwest know how to do that. Practically every premium travel rewards card comes with at least a Priority Pass Select membership.

But Southwest. Can’t. Stop. Tinkering.

They added bag fees, ended open seating, and is now chasing a premium customer that may or may not want what Southwest is selling.

Two Cousins Ran an $8.5 Million Airbnb Scam and Just Pleaded Guilty

Shray Goel and Shaunik Raheja operated a double-booking scheme across nearly 100 properties — Malibu, Venice Beach, Austin, Miami — from 2013 to 2019. They’d list the same property at multiple price points, keep the highest bidder, and cancel everyone else with fake maintenance excuses. Over 10,000 reservations affected. The federal indictment also alleged they disproportionately canceled guests they perceived to be black, though they didn’t plead guilty to that specific charge.

Airbnb cooperated with the FBI throughout. Sentencing is later this summer. Goel faces up to 20 years.

Reminder: if you ever get a suspicious last-minute cancellation with a vague excuse, document everything and go straight to the platform — not the host. Lots of hosts in the Palm Springs area stuck it to Coachella guests last weekend.

TSA Is Scanning Faces at 65 Airports Now — Here’s How to Opt Out

The facial recognition rollout expanded significantly this spring. It’s still technically voluntary — walk up to the checkpoint, say “I’d like to opt out,” and they’ll check your ID the old-fashioned way. No delay, no extra screening required.

The catch: in testing, only 1% of passengers were verbally told they could opt out. So now you know.

And Then There Were the Pilots Meowing on the Emergency Radio

Your friend and mine, René deLambert, is a cat guy. (But I still like him. 😉 ) I dedicate this story to him.

On April 12, two pilots near Reagan National Airport started meowing at each other over the guard frequency — the emergency-only channel monitored by basically every aircraft in the air. An air traffic controller’s response went viral: “This is why you still fly an RJ.” (More meowing followed.)

The FAA is investigating. The pilots haven’t been identified. Our friend Charlie Mortling’s avgeeks.aero piece on why this happens — and why the guard frequency is a recurring problem — is a great read right now.

That’s the week!