Issue Summary

It’s Independence Day in America, and the beginning of the year’s second half for all the world’s airlines, which thus far have a lot to celebrate. Collectively, the airline industry enjoyed a profitable first quarter thanks chiefly to lowish fuel prices, something absent during most of the past two decades. The second quarter should produce even greater profits— airlines will start reporting their Q2 earnings soon. And IATA expects the industry to earn nearly $40b for the full year. The biggest fireworks show, appropriately enough this July 4, is in the U.S., where airlines are relishing cheap fuel largely unadulterated…