Skift Airline Weekly

Back in the aughts, Airlines for America’s Chief Economist John Heimlich often showed a slide with an alarming statistic: Coffee giant Starbucks’ market capitalization was more than that of the entire U.S. airline industry combined. So much has changed in the last 10 years, as the airline industry recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, SARS, […]

Wizz Air, which five years ago had about 50 planes, now has close to 120. More importantly, with this phenomenal expansion has come just as phenomenal profitability, highlighted by three straight years — 2015, 2016, and 2017 — with operating margins between 16% and 17%. Last year’s figure dropped to 12%, pierced by some of […]

Alright, so the global economy is slowing. But it’s still growing. Oil prices are down by roughly a fifth from levels last autumn. Many short-haul markets are seeing a reprieve from overcapacity due to aircraft shortages. Air traffic continues to grow at a healthy pace. Load factors are at record highs. So why in the […]

A decade ago, Delta came within a whisker of tearing Japan Airlines away from American. In 2018 it suc- cessfully convinced WestJet to abandon American. And last Thursday, it dealt American a shattering blow: Delta — stunningly and unexpectedly — will forge a deep alliance with longtime American partner Latam. To appreciate the gravity of […]

In this episode of the Skift Airline Weekly Lounge podcast, Skift Travel Senior Aviation Business Editor Brian Sumers and I discuss the interviews we did on stage at Skift Global Forum in New York City, Sept. 18–19. Air France/KLM CEO Ben Smith told us how he’s trying to rationalize and simplify Air France’s network (while […]

Latin America’s largest airline typically performs better in the second half of the year. But the first half of 2019 was unusually bad for LATAM. Is there a prosperous path forward? That’s the question many are asking following the carrier’s $21m H1 net loss, excluding special items, coupled with a lowly 2.5% operating margin. Last […]

Andrew Watterson, Southwest’s chief revenue officer, had a few minutes to talk  to Skift Airline Weekly Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan and Skift Travel Senior Aviation Business Editor Brian Sumers at the Boyd Group’s International Aviation Forecast Summit in Las Vegas last month. Watterson still is bullish on Hawaii and says Southwest will expand its service to […]

For U.S. airlines, something profound happened in 2014, something that would change the fortune of the industry more than anything else. What was it? Fuel prices plummeted late that year. And they’ve remained low since, at least relative to the $100-plus-per-barrel prices that prevailed from 2011-2013. All U.S. airlines benefited, not least Allegiant, the most […]

Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of McCarran International Airport System, leads operations at McCarran and oversees four other airports in southern Nevada. Vassiliadis thinks airlines are flat wrong in their opposition to raising the passenger facility charge, or PFC. Airports have long argued for raising this fee to a maximum of $8.50 per passenger, up from $4.50 […]

During the second quarter of 2019, China’s Big Three state-owned airlines—Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern—all earned profits at the operating level. So did Hainan Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, and Spring Airlines. But three of these six publicly-traded carriers—China Eastern, China Southern, and Hainan—simultaneously reported red ink at the net level, which includes interest costs, […]