Jay Shabat

In this week's show, Gordon and Jay take a whistle-stop tour of international airline markets. From Germany to Japan and many spots inbetween, don't miss our Q1 2025 earnings season insights.

Heavy first quarter losses. A tariff war that threatens global commerce. Signs of softening in the all-important transatlantic market. Surely the Lufthansa Group must be worried? On the contrary, despite the rather nasty $932m Q1 net loss it reported last week, bosses at the European aviation powerhouse struck a decidedly upbeat tone. In this week's feature story, we ask if this optimism is justified.

With numbers in from most of the major U.S. carriers, the Airline Weekly Lounge team examine the winners and losers from Q1 2025.

Q1 earnings season started off pleasantly enough: Delta showed nice profits. United showed nice profits. Last week, by contrast, American, Southwest, and Alaska all revealed Q1 losses. As you’ll read below, the news wasn’t all bad. Premium demand, for example, seems still immune from the brewing economic storm. Fuel prices, meanwhile, are exactly where airlines want them to be: In the basement.

As is so often the case in the airline industry — even when revenues climb, profits can still experience a notable descent.

Brand loyal. Brand loyal. Brand loyal. Say that 31 times. Then again? You don’t need to. United already did. No kidding. In its Q1 earnings call last week, United repeated the phrase over and over, keen to underscore one of its chief arguments: That it is winning with travelers who care about more than just price. In this week's feature story, we crunch through the commentary from Kirby and Co.

As is customary, Delta was first out the gates in reporting its quarterly earnings. There were plenty of warnings, but executives also highlighted underlying strengths in the business.

The whole world was watching. On Wednesday, Delta became the first major U.S. travel company to report first quarter earnings. What would it say about the crisis in confidence unfolding throughout the U.S. economy? How much worse have things gotten in the past month, since Delta first warned about deteriorating demand trends?

This week we examine our turbulent economic skies, including the impact of tariffs and oil prices on airline operations and demand.

Alright, so here we go again. Something’s gone awry in the world, and airlines are among the first to feel it. Following last week’s U.S. plan to essentially dismantle the global trading system, uncertainty has reached a fever-pitch. In this week's feature story we deep-dive into one of the thorniest battles in this emerging economic conflict, and ask how (or perhaps, if) Canada's airlines can come out fighting.