Issues

Give it credit for honest self assessment. In American’s latest annual report, the airline admits: “Our presence in international markets, such as Asia, is not as extensive as that of…

Every major U.S. airline is making money. The U.S. airline industry hasn’t lost money in almost a decade. It has now earned double-digit operating margins for four straight years. So…

You can set your watch to it. Global airline demand, measured by RPK traffic, doubles every 15 years. It did so during the past 15 years. It did so in…

Ah, remember those days… fond old memories like the first Gulf war, the Asian financial crisis and the SARS epidemic? If ever there was crisis in the airline industry, Singapore…

Some universal truths about Europe’s airlines emerged during the opening quarter of 2018. All enjoyed strong demand conditions, in pretty much all markets, all segments and all classes of service.…

As recently as last year’s second quarter, Alaska Airlines was America’s most profitable airline. Its extraordinary 23% operating margin for the spring period didn’t surprise anyone. It was, after all,…

Five years ago, America’s small-city air service was shrinking. Take the second quarter of 2013, as an example, when the country’s busiest 50 airports (Atlanta to Columbus, at the time)…

Things could hardly be more different for two airlines in the same country. In one corner of the ring, Virgin Australia is bloodied and battered. In the other, Qantas has…

There were two dominant themes in the U.S. airline business during the opening quarter of 2018: 1) Demand was red hot, and 2) Fuel prices were way up. Unfortunately, trend…

It’s a good time to be a Japanese airline. The country’s two dominant carriers, All Nippon and Japan Airlines, both earned solid if not spectacular profits last year, fueled by…