Issues

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.

Is there ever a good time to start a new airline? Certainly not during a pandemic. Recurrent airline founder David Neeleman launched Breeze Airways in May 2021, a month in which U.S. airports handled just 50 million passengers. Last May, for perspective, they handled 80 million. In this week's feature story we examine the opportunities and the stubborn challenges of this plucky outlier that doesn't mind flying against the wind.

What’s Turkey’s largest airline? Of course, it’s Turkish Airlines. But don’t overlook another Turkish carrier that’s growing and profiting at least as impressively...

A longterm plan to rightsize the federal government and reindustrialize the U.S.? Or economic suicide? To large swathes of corporate America right now, it feels like the latter. Tariff uncertainty and mass layoffs are rattling consumer and business confidence while erasing trillions in value from stock markets. Are airlines affected? As America’s largest carriers made clear last week, the answer is an emphatic yes.  

British Airways earned a $2.6 billion operating profit in 2024. Its rival Lufthansa lost almost $100 million. In this week's feature story we find out what's going so right at BA.

Ready for a shakeup? India’s international airline markets are about to change, big time. India’s own airlines want a bigger piece of the pie. Foreign carriers see the pie getting larger. Even distant low-cost carriers like Wizz Air want a taste. In this week's feature story, we examine who will be the likely winners and losers.

For an airline, the closest thing to happiness is cheap fuel. No wonder so many American carriers are smiling. During the final quarter of 2024, U.S. airlines enjoyed a roughly 20% drop in jet fuel prices.

Should Finnair hire a party planner, or a funeral director? No, it’s not in danger of dying. But after a surprisingly strong showing in 2023 and 2024, 2025 is looking uncomfortably fraught with peril. Labor unrest. Ballooning costs. A once-prized Asian network still disrupted. It’s enough to make any airline nervous, let alone a smallish government-owned carrier that lacks scale. In this week's edition, we ask if Finnair can defy the odds again.

Down. Down. Down. In 2024, Japan Airlines saw its annual profit margins drop again. Putting aside the pandemic-blemished period, JAL’s profitability declined for a sixth consecutive year. Last week, it posted a 7% operating margin for calendar year 2024. Not just down versus 2023, but a far cry from its 15% heyday. What’s happening? In this week's feature story we ask if the double-digit margins are gone forever and if JAL can turn things around.

In a victory of sorts, JetBlue managed a slim Q4 profit. It wasn't a fantastic performance, but this reversed an operating loss in 2023’s fourth quarter. Might it mark the start of a much-needed turnaround? JetBlue delivered its earnings presentation a day before Frontier launched a new bid to buy Spirit. Will it consider a revised offer too? Or could JetBlue itself become an acquisition target? In this week's feature story we examine the latest ups and downs at New York's Hometown Airline.