Skift Airline Weekly

After a horrible first quarter, European airlines badly needed a strong second quarter. What they got was a mixed second quarter, with some trends favorable and others adverse. Results varied widely across the continent, from IAG’s outstanding 14% Q2 operating margin to Iceland’s appalling negative 6%. Of the eight major European carriers that have reported […]

Just before stepping down as CEO of British regional carrier Flybe, Christine Ourmières-Widener took a minute to talk to Skift Airline Weekly at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Seoul. Ourmières-Widener’s two years at the helm of Flybe were tumultuous, she acknowledged, and culminated with the carrier’s acquisition by Virgin Atlantic. But she noted that […]

They call it the “Lucky Country.” And for good reason. Australia hasn’t experienced an economic recession in almost three decades. But as the nation’s central bank governor warned last week, the economy has “slowed sharply since the middle of last year.” Already, airlines are feeling it. In May, Virgin Australia, with heavy domestic exposure, warned […]

Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said he envies American Airlines CEO Doug Parker for the scale and potential for profitability that U.S. carriers have from a large domestic market. Parker, the chief of the U.S.’s largest carrier, once famously said the era of airlines reporting losses is over. In its most recent quarter, Singapore […]

Skift Airline Weekly recently talked to Jens Bischof, CEO of SunExpress and SunExpress Germany about the airline’s plans for the future, how it relates to its parent companies, Turkish and Lufthansa, and how the B737 MAX grounding has affected its operations. SunExpress and its German-AOC counterpart, SunExpress Germany, are a joint venture between Turkish and […]

During Q1 earnings season, U.S. airlines essentially said don’t worry, demand and pricing trends would be better in Q2. They were right. The first three months of 2019 weren’t bad for U.S. carriers. All were solidly profitable. But remember the talk about “choppy” leisure demand, the Federal government shutdown, weak economy-class yields on transatlantic routes, […]

So which is it? Two weeks ago, Delta cited “softer than expected demand in Japan.” But last week, United said routes to Japan were just fine. Soon, American, Hawaiian, Japan Airlines, and All Nippon will report their Q2 results, likely providing more clarity on trends in the giant U.S.-Japan market. Just how giant is it? […]

For a while, it looked like Norwegian wouldn’t make it. Now, following release of its second-quarter financial results, those fears are easing if not extinguished. Last year, Norwegian suffered a $356m operating loss, which alone makes clear just how precarious things had become. In January, not for the first time, the airline had to raise […]

The first half of 2019 featured quieter forms of aircraft-related disruptions, some engine-related and others tied to delivery delays. Just as frustrating were inordinate operational disruptions from increasingly volatile weather and increasingly unreliable air traffic control, the latter affecting Europe most disruptively. Overlay these concerns with a raging trade war that’s already torpedoing air cargo […]

In an all-day event with investment analysts last week, Lufthansa trumpeted the overall success of its 2014 business plan—with justification: The company doubled its operating margin from 4% in 2014 to 8% in 2018. But one important aspect of the plan was an unequivocal failure. Eurowings, born in 2015, was supposed to be Lufthansa’s low-cost […]