The wildfires in the Southern California Metro area are causing widespread devastation.
Support is flowing in. But more is needed.
Here are a few ways you can join airlines in contributing money or miles.
Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are donating $100,000 to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and five million Mileage Plan miles to the American Red Cross for disaster relief related to the Los Angeles wildfires.
You can contribute donate miles, with all donations matched up to five million miles until January 17, 2025. Here’s a link to get started.
From now through January 22, 2025, American Airlines AAdvantage members can earn 10 bonus miles for every dollar donated to the Red Cross with a minimum $25 donation.
More than one million dollars has been raised already. Here’s the link to make your contribution.
Delta Air Lines is contributing $1 million to the American Red Cross to help those affected by the wildfires sweeping across California.
United Airlines has donated $100,000 to two local California nonprofits, the LA Regional Food Bank and California Fire Foundation. The carrier will match additional donations up to $150,000 and 5 million miles. Here’s a link to make your contribution.
This week IATA, the International Air Transport Association, released its 2025 outlook, covering everything from the number of people expected to fly, to financial outlooks for the industry and the progress (or not…) on the industry’s goal of producing enough sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to help airlines combat climate change.
Here are some highlights:
5.2 billion people are expected to take to the skies during 2025. That’s a 6.7% increase over 2024 and the first time the total expected passengers will exceed the 5 billion mark.
IATA expects the average airfare in 2025 to be $380, which is 1.8% lower than 2024.
In 2025, global airline industry revenues will exceed $1 trillion for the first time, representing almost 1% of the global economy. Airlines also have $940 billion in costs and retain a net profit margin of just 3.6%, said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, “Put another way, the buffer between profit and loss, even in the good year that we are expecting of 2025, is just $7 per passenger.”
Airlines face some significant risks
IATA notes that there are strong geopolitical and economic uncertainties facing the airline industry, including multiple conflicts around the world and the incoming Trump Administration, which could create tariffs and trade wars that dampen both air cargo demand and business travel.
Offsets and carbon capture as well as new technologies such as electric and hydrogen are elements of the plan, but the production of enough sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is the major component.
Unfortunately, while the amount of sustainable aviation fuel being produced is increasing, it’s going slower than planned.
“Governments are sending mixed signals to oil companies which continue to receive subsidies for their exploration and production of fossil oil and gas,” said IATA’s Willia Walsh, “And investors in new generation fuel producers seem to be waiting for guarantees of easy money before going full throttle.”
There are strings, of course. And more to the story.
You need to be flying in business class on an intercontinental flight. And the houses are just 4 inches high.
But they are filled with Dutch gin and are part of a series of Delft Blue miniatures in the shape of a notable historic or landmark building in the Netherlands or abroad.
KLM began the tradition of gifting a miniature Delft Blue house filled with gin to first and business-class passengers back in the 1950s.
It was a way to get around rules about tax restrictions that once limited the value of the gifts that airlines could give to passengers. A cocktail that just happened to be served in a keepsake miniature house was within the rules.
The houses became so popular that in 1994, on the carrier’s 75th birthday, KLM issued a catch-up batch of houses so that the number of houses would line up with the airline’s age.
Now a new miniature Delft Blue house is released to great fanfare each year on October 7, KLM’s birthday.
The 105th KLM Delft Blue House
This year’s house – the 105th in the series – honors a 17th-century house in Amsterdam known as the House on Three Canals.
Built in the Dutch Renaissance style and renovated several times since 1687, this Dutch national monument has a different canal on three sides of the building.
“It’s one of the most photographed monuments in the city,” said historian Marz Zegeling. “This building – which was originally two buildings – has three different façades, or faces and is still revealing secrets,” such as a hidden hatch leading to a secret hiding spot, he added.
Zegeling is the author of “Little Kingdom by the Sea,” a regularly updated 2-book set with detailed descriptions and histories of each building in the KLM Delft Blue house series.
On October 7, Marjan Rintel, the President and CEO of KLM, presented the first copy of the Delft Blue miniature of the House on Three Canals to Arthur van Dijk, the King’s Commissioner in the province of North Holland.
KLM’s birthday and the new Delft Blue miniature house reveal comes at a “challenging time” for the carrier, Rintel acknowledged in a pre-event press conference. While the airline is investing billions in new, more efficient aircraft is also embarking on a campaign aimed at reducing costs, increasing productivity and increasing network capacity, especially on long-haul flights.
For now, though, KLM’s Delft Blue miniature house program is safe from cuts.
“We will look at everything but not the Delft Blue houses,” Rintel said, “We’re well known for it and it will stay as part of our brand.”
You can get a KLM miniature house as a complimentary amenity when flying business class on an intercontinental KLM flight, on eBay and in antique shops throughout Amsterdam.
And you can track your collection using the KLM Houses app.
Condor, the German airline with the candy stripe livery in an assortment of fun colors, has added a pink-striped livery to one of its Airbust A320 aircraft to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which runs through October.
Condor’s “Fly Pink” plane joins the “FlyPink” initiative founded by QantasLink pilots in 2015.
The initiative supports the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and contributes to local breast cancer charities around the world.
This is the first new livery color for Condor since it launched in 2022 with five other colors.
The cabin of the “FlyPink” Plane will also sport pink on headrest covers and on special “safety cards” which have detailed information on breast cancer prevention, according to a Condor statement.
There’s also pink-striped Condor merchandise, including umbrellas, water bottles and beach towels, for sale in the Condor Shop and on board. The proceeds from these items will be donated to Brustkrebs Deutschland e.V., a breast cancer prevention and research association in Germany.
Alaska Airlines has a long-running and very popular Wine Flies Free program that allows members of its mileage plan program to check a case of wine without having to pay an extra baggage fee when flying from 32 West Coast cities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California.
As a great and valuable bonus, in Oregon, Washington and Idaho your Alaska Airlines boarding pass gets you free wine tastings at participatng wineries.
Now Avelo Airlines is joining the wine-flies-free bandwagon with its own version of the program.
The airline doesn’t service as many cities as Alaska does, but beginning on National Wine Day (May 25), Avelo customers can begin checking a case of wine for free from the Bay Area’s Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS) in Santa Rosa, CA.
Avelo currently offers nonstop flights from Sonoma to Salem, Oregon (SLE), Bend/Redmond (RDM), Boise (BOI), Glacier Park International Airport (FCA) in Kalispell, MT, Las Vegas (LAS), Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) and Palm Springs (PSP).
“We know that visiting the vineyards and sampling Northern California’s world-famous wines is one of the most appealing reasons for visiting the Sonoma County region,” said Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy, “It is our hope Avelo’s new Wine Travels Free program will make our Customers’ trips to California Wine Country that much more enjoyable and memorable.”
On both Alaska and Avelo, you must be at least 21 years of age to take advantage of this perk. And on both airlines one case of wine is considered to be a single box or case containing up to 12 bottles and weighing 50 lbs or less.
Let’s raise a glass to airlines that let wines fly free.
