Author: FlyMarshall Newsroom

Air Canada’s plan for its upcoming Airbus A321XLRs continues to evolve. You’d not expect otherwise. According to the airline’s latest schedule update to Cirium Diio, it’ll now fly the XLR domestically, from Montreal to Calgary and Vancouver. While Calgary service was previously known, Vancouver wasn’t. It comes as the Star Alliance member recently withdrew the XLR from nearly all of its Montreal to Palma de Mallorca flights, with the Boeing 787-8 to be deployed instead. The switch is seemingly at least partly because of the very high temperatures in the Spanish airport in the summer, along with the nearly noon…

Troubled low-cost carrier Spirit Airways has secured up to $100 million in funding, after CEO Dave Davis said lenders had recognized “all the significant progress” made in recent months. On December 15, 2025, Spirit Aviation Holdings, the parent company of Spirit Airlines, confirmed that it had reached an agreement to amend its debtor-in-possession credit agreement. The debtor-in-possession credit agreement allows for companies in bankruptcy proceedings under Chapter 11 to obtain funding for ongoing operations. “The amendment provides for the previously agreed third funding round of an incremental $100 million to be fulfilled today,” said Spirit. According to Spirit, $50 million…

There’s currently a public spat between South Korea’s president and Incheon International Airport’s president, which could soon impact passengers. I can’t really make sense of this, because this seems like a silly thing to focus on. Perhaps there’s a bit of nuance here, and this is more about political posturing than anything else. Even so, it seems like a losing battle… President demands all bags at Incheon be manually searched This situated started on Friday, December 12, 2025, and involves South Korean president Lee Jae-myung. During a work report by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, the president expressed…

As one of the oldest and largest airlines in the United States of America, the US domestic market is an important piece of the puzzle for Delta Air Lines. The scale of its internal operations is underlined by the fact that it uses widebody aircraft on select routes, despite them typically serving long-haul corridors. According to scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Delta Air Lines has scheduled a grand total of 2,561 domestic widebody flights this month, representing a 9.8% increase compared to its figure of 2,332 in December of 2024. These will offer 590,705 seats,…

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving ahead with plans to tear up the union contract covering tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, despite a federal court order that blocked an earlier attempt to do so. The decision sets up a fresh legal battle over collective bargaining rights for front-line airport screeners at a time when Congress is trying to restore broader protections for federal workers.   In a notice to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents about 47,000 TSA officers, the agency said it will implement a new “labor framework” on January 11, 2026. The move would…

There are three major global airline alliances — oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance — and each offers some level of reciprocal elite recognition. In separate posts, I’ve written about oneworld Emerald status, oneworld Sapphire status, and Star Alliance Gold status. In this post, I’d like to take a look at the benefits of SkyTeam Elite Plus status. SkyTeam is a popular airline alliance, and Elite Plus is SkyTeam’s highest reciprocal elite tier. How airline alliance elite status works One of the major benefits of the global alliances is reciprocal elite recognition across airlines. While you’ll generally be treated the best when flying…

This article addresses a focused question: how many F‑15 aircraft does the United States Air Force operate today, and how are those numbers counted and expected to change? The F‑15 family, including legacy C/D Eagles, F‑15E Strike Eagles, and the new F‑15EX Eagle II, remains a core element of USAF combat capacity. Knowing the exact numbers and how they are reported is essential to understanding surge readiness, homeland defense, and the balance between legacy platforms and fifth-generation investments. Using the USAF Annual Report on Tactical Fighter Aircraft Force Structure (October 2025), this article explains the difference between Combat-Coded Total Aircraft…

It might seem inconceivable that the use of drones in future battles would have come to the forefront of discussions of NATO strategy in the 1950s, but that is exactly what happened when Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery delivered an address to the Royal United Service Institution in 1954. Montgomery, who helped create the foundations of NATO and was then serving as its Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR), gave a speech entitled, “A Look Through A Window at World War III,” which stirred up much controversy at the time. Many of the thoughts Montgomery expressed regarding Western defense and the…

Luxembourg is weighing its options for long-range air and missile defense as European manufacturers MBDA and Thales intensify efforts to promote the SAMP/T Next Generation system across the continent, positioning it as a European alternative to the US-made Patriot. According to industry and diplomatic sources cited by the French publication La Lettre, Luxembourg is among the countries currently engaged in discussions with the Franco-Italian Eurosam consortium, which brings together MBDA and Thales. While no procurement decision has been announced, the country’s interest reflects a broader reassessment of air defense needs among smaller European states amid a rapidly deteriorating security environment.…

In late 2024, we saw Cathay Pacific launch its new Aria Suite business class. I’ve had the chance to fly it, and it’s a phenomenal product. Cathay Pacific is a world class airline, and this really elevates the carrier’s business class to being among the best in the world. As is the case with any new product, the challenge is the lengthy rollout, as actually retrofitting aircraft with a new product can take years. With that in mind, we’re continuing to see this product introduced on more planes. The product has now been scheduled to operate to the United States…