Delta Is 100 Years Old, Canadians Cancel Routes, and Other Airline News This Week

Every week, we look at airline industry stories that did not get an individual article in the past 7 days. This week, we’ve seen news affecting air transport across the Atlantic, across the Canadian border, in Europe, and elsewhere.

Let’s have a look.

Delta Turns 100

In a post on LinkedIn, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian marked the 100th anniversary of the airline, which began on March 2, 1925, as a company called Huff Daland Dusters.

The Delta Museum explains that Huff Daland Dusters were airplanes designed in 1924 for crop dusting, operated by a company of the same name. Then, investors based in the Southern U.S. bought the company and renamed it Delta Air Service, in a reference to the Mississippi Delta. Passenger service began in 1929.

Today, Delta is the biggest airline in the world by revenue, with $61.6 billion in 2024.

United Makes PlusPoints More Flexible, Tweaks a Perk of Million Miler Status

Some United Airlines elite-status holders will soon be able to use their PlusPoints for something other than upgrades. PlusPoints are awarded once a flyer reaches at least Premier Platinum elite status and are earned by flying more.

United said on its site that beginning in summer, in addition to using PlusPoints to request premium seats and cabin upgrades, flyers will be able to redeem PlusPoints for new perks, including:

• Gifting Premier status to other MileagePlus members
• Premier qualifying points (PQP) or Premier qualifying flights (PQF)
• TravelBank cash
• Bonus miles

The airline said the new benefits will be available with PlusPoints earned during the 2025 qualification year, with an expiration date of January 31, 2027, or later.

United also is the only U.S. airline that lets its Million Milers gift status to a companion. Now, The Points Guy reported, that status is being reduced.

Beginning in 2027, companions of 1 Million Miler members will no longer get the same status as their sponsor. Instead, they’ll get Premier Gold status. The change takes effect in 2027 and does not apply to members with 2 million or more miles.

Silver Airways in Trouble

Florida-based airline Silver Airways, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December but kept flying and selling tickets, is canceling dozens of flights, including all services to and from Orlando (MCO), according to local station Fox 35.

Silver is still selling flights on its site, but One Mile at a Time reported that much of the fleet is grounded and what flights are running carry huge delays. The airline told The Points Guy that the airplanes’ lessors repossessed some of the fleet.

Silver mostly serves intra-Florida and Caribbean flights, using a fleet of European-made ATR turboprops.

While unaffiliated with other carriers, Silver has partnerships with JetBlue and United Airlines. Passengers can earn United’s MileagePlus or JetBlue’s TrueBlue points on its flights.

Silver told TPG that flights booked on those partner sites would be honored and that it would work to reroute passengers affected by cancellations. At this point, however, it’s not clear whether that is actually happening.

Canada’s Flair Cancels Some U.S. Routes

Ishrion Aviation reported that Canadian low-cost carrier Flair is canceling some U.S. routes, beginning in early April. Those are:

• Edmonton (YEG)-Las Vegas (LAS)
• Edmonton-Phoenix (PHX)
• Vancouver (YVR)-Palm Springs (PSP)
• Waterloo (YKF)-Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
• Calgary (YYC)-Las Vegas
• Calgary-Phoenix

The Toronto (YYZ)-Nashville (BNA) flight had already ended and will not resume.

Flair hasn’t said whether the cancellations are due to the political tension between the U.S. and Canada. It will be important to keep an eye on future route decisions by Canadian carriers — and U.S. airlines flying to Canada — to gauge what impact those tensions may have on air traffic, especially as Air Canada and WestJet have planned an expansion to the U.S. in 2025.

Air France Cuts Flights to Atlanta, Boston

Air France is reducing frequencies on 2 U.S. routes from its Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) hub.

According to AeroRoutes, Paris to Atlanta (ATL) will be cut from 21 flights a week to 18 starting March 31, then further cut to 17 in May, including in the top European vacation months of July and August.

Paris to Boston (BOS) will be reduced from 17 to 14 weekly flights beginning on June 2.

Both airports are gateways for connections with Air France’s close partner Delta Air Lines, a fellow member of the SkyTeam alliance. Frequency reductions in the busy summer season, when traffic across the Atlantic is at its peak and airlines generally add flights, may indicate that Air France expects less demand for travel to the U.S.

British Airways and Partners Still Betting on North America

If Air France is reducing some transatlantic flights, the airline group including British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus is doing the opposite.

In its full-year 2024 report for shareholders, IAG summed the coming expansion of service to the U.S., with new destinations and increased frequencies. IAG’s take on North American traffic matters, because it has 45% of the North Atlantic market. That market accounts for almost 1 in 3 of all its available seats/kilometers, a key measure of capacity in the airline industy.

In particular, IAG noted that British Airways will be, by the end of this year, the only airline operating first class across the Atlantic from London, assuming American Airlines finishes the retirement of its Flagship First cabin by then. In 2025, British will add frequencies to Washington Dulles (IAD), Austin (AUS), Las Vegas (LAS), and Vancouver (YVR), plus increase Pittsburgh (PIT) to a daily flight.

Aer Lingus will add service to Nashville (BNA) and Indianapolis (IND) from Dublin (DUB) using the single-aisle, and highly economical, Airbus A321XLR.

And Iberia will deploy all of its A321XLRs to the U.S., including to Boston (BOS), which the plane already serves, and Washington, D.C., where it will be introduced soon.

Ryanair Delays the Move to 100% Paperless

Europe’s low-fare giant Ryanair announced last year that it would get rid of all printed boarding passes by May 2025. The airline now says it will delay the move to the start of its winter schedule on November 3.

In practical terms, this means that no one will download and print a physical boarding pass but will use the digital boarding pass generated in the Ryanair app at check-in. According to the airline, this already happens for almost 80% of its 200 million annual passengers. The airline expects to save 300 metric tons, or about 660,000 pounds, of paper a year.

Checking in at the airport already costs an extra fee on Ryanair. After the move to paperless, the airline expects to have airport counters only for dropping off luggage.

Hawaiian Airlines May Install Starlink on 787s

Hawaiian Airlines has 2 new Boeing 787s and 10 more coming, which is great news for its passengers — not least because the 787s have a business class with all seats providing direct aisle access. The Airbus A330s that form the carrier’s current long-haul backbone do not.

There’s a problem, though: The 787s do not have Wi-Fi, unlike the rest of the fleet. That can be a serious competitive disadvantage on long flights to Hawaii.

According to what CEO Joe Sprague told Maui Now, it won’t be long before that changes.

“Alaska Airlines is looking at bringing Starlink on board as well, and we’ll probably make an announcement soon,” the CEO said, adding that because the 787 has a fuselage made of composite materials which cause signal-transmission issues, “it might take several months, but we’re on it.”

Starlink offers free, fast, satellite-based Internet to all seats, and it’s becoming popular with airlines. United just rolled out its first airplane with Starlink.

After Sprague spoke, the airline corrected course a bit, saying that “no decision has been made” and that it’s “considering multiple providers, including Starlink.” Either way, it’s a safe bet that the newly merged Alaska-Hawaiian will not let its flagship jets fly without Wi-Fi much longer.

Beware Boliviana’s Business-Class Shenanigans

Bolivia’s flag carrier Boliviana de Aviación has taken two-thirds of its airplanes with business class out of service, which is causing issues for passengers who booked business and find themselves downgraded.

BoA has 3 Airbus A330-200s with business, but according to Flightradar24 records only 1 is flying, mostly between the main Bolivian airport, Santa Cruz (VVI), and Madrid (MAD) in Spain.

The routes to Miami, BoA’s only U.S. destination, have been downgraded for weeks now to a Boeing 737 that does not have business class and needs to stop for fuel in Panama. If you have reserved on Boliviana, beware of this possible snafu.

On a positive note, our news managing editor, Ryan Smith, who was booked in business from Miami (MIA) and was notified of a downgrade to economy, got a full refund.

An email to the Boliviana head office asking for clarification bounced back, with a message saying the inbox was full.

Final Thoughts

This week has brought good news for some United frequent flyers and so-so news for other United elites. For people booked on Silver Airways, instead, the news has been uniformly negative. And for everybody else, there have been changes in the transatlantic and U.S.-Canada markets that warrant our attention in the months ahead.