Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 98: Ryanair’s Resilience

Despite a 29% year-over-year increase to its labor costs, Ryanair still posted a positive profit margin in the first quarter. Ryan’s eastern European counterpart, Wizz Air, meanwhile faced an even more daunting 43% rise in labor costs and handled it with equal aplomb. Scandinavian Airlines is plodding along, but so are a lot of other legacy carriers in Europe. For the moment, that’s okay.

Doing much less than okay is El Al, an airline suffering a big loss in its first quarter despite Tel Aviv enjoying terrific growth in tourism. In the U.S., Delta and United say they don’t fear high oil prices or low-cost longhaul carriers. Should they? Lastly, airBaltic looks for a suitor, and Aeroflot takes a step backward.