Shouldn't a publication about an interesting industry be, well, interesting?
Reflecting on the first six months of 2018, two words quickly come to mind: “strong,” which describes the revenue environment, and “rising,” which describes the cost trajectory. Airlines around the world—and their suppliers too—spoke glowingly of strong traffic growth, strong premium demand, strong tourism, strong cargo trends and so on. Less happily, oil, labor, aircraft […]
Frontier Airlines has had one of the most topsy-turvy histories of any airline, and its first-quarter earnings report was no exception. Sporting a wild animal on each tail, the airline has been soaring in recent years. In 2017, Frontier had the seventh best operating profit margin in the world. But something happened in Q1 2018, […]
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 some of our competitors.” Is American being too hard on itself? Is the depth and breadth of its international network really a liability? American’s Latin […]
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 where are the aviation entrepreneurs enticed by this success? Where are all the new entrants? Finally, one is coming. One that promises to make a […]
Things haven’t gotten better in Mexico. Although Aeroméxico is at least coping better than its domestic competitors, all of which posted negative first-quarter margins in the double-digits. To make matters worse, construction of Mexico City’s much-needed new airport might be suspended as soon as July. North of the border, Delta and Southwest are seeing more […]
