Feisty Brian is Back

I received some feedback from subscribers who complained that I was far too optimistic about Frontier's changes in 2026. So today, I promise you a very sarcastic newsletter about several topics.

Dear readers,

I hope you haven’t been waiting for The Airline Observer’s opus on the government shutdown, because I’m not going to do it. I’m not an expert on U.S. government insanity, and I think that only people well-versed in Beltway absurdity can answer questions about why the Department of Transportation forced airlines to cut up to 10 percent of flights without a real rationale. Or, that’s more or less what I’ve been telling producers who have been inviting me to comment on and analyze this mess.

Simply put: while aviation got caught up in this mishegas, the government’s abdication of its role in keeping U.S. infrastructure going is not a topic for an airline business newsletter.

I do commend airline teams for ensuring these late and unexpected cancellations did not cripple the entire aviation network. Yes, it helped that mid-November is a slow travel period, but you all should be proud of your work. As Ned Russell wrote: during Covid, the industry learned how to make targeted, close-in cuts without affecting too many travelers, and it seems like those learnings applied to this government shutdown.¹

Let’s move on to a few other developments I’m following that have nothing to do with government insanity, including how Breeze opted not to take on Alaska in Burbank, why a few of you disliked my recent piece on Frontier, and why I’m not optimistic about a new U.S.-based premium airline.