Brazil’s Injured Star

It’s the heart of earnings season now. Major airlines from across the world reported their second-quarter results last week. In Asia, Singapore Airlines enjoyed another fantastic quarter. All Nippon's performance was good but not great. In the U.S., the domestic goliath Southwest earned a respectable double-digit operating margin that nevertheless looked a bit sickly compared to its peers. One of those peers, Alaska Airlines, produced margins that topped even Delta and United, never mind that Delta and United are currently riding an unprecedented intercontinental boom.