By its own lofty standards, 2019 was not a good year for Ryanair. Needless to say, 2020 will be worse. But with an important caveat: This year’s distress contains unmistakable seeds of opportunity. Ryanair will survive the crisis, no doubt...
Read MoreAirlines are just going to have to learn to live with the virus. Might there be a miracle vaccine before 2020 ends? Or a miracle cure? Not impossible. But also not the likeliest scenario. Some say the plague could linger...
Read MoreIt’s going to be a smaller airline industry. That much seems sure, for at least the next few years as carriers adjust to a world with less travel. Fewer planes. Fewer routes. Fewer airline workers. It’s not a pretty picture....
Read MoreThe carnage is now plain to see. Some of the largest airlines from the U.S., China, Japan, and Europe showed just how much money the wicked coronavirus is bleeding from their coffers. A few like Southwest and Japan Airlines escaped...
Read MoreLet’s start with a bit of good news for a change. Jet2.com, a British LCC, says people are now booking holidays for late summer and beyond. Air Arabia and Etihad are moving forward with a new low-cost venture. Ditto for...
Read MoreIt’s a pandemic. It’s a recession. A "pancession?" By whatever name, the Covid-19 virus is destroying both lives and livelihoods. For airlines, it’s destroying both supply and demand. When will it end? The Chinese domestic market offers glimmers of hope...
Read MoreAside from a few stragglers like Hainan Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and El Al, fourth-quarter earnings season is now finished. Those were simpler times, featuring familiar names near the top of industry profit rankings: Delta, IAG, Copa, etc. Brazilian airlines, interestingly,...
Read MoreThe questions are more numerous than the answers. Will warm weather stunt the spread of Covid-19? Can victims be re-infected? When, if ever, can the world produce and administer a vaccine? How fast before the population develops herd immunity? Can...
Read MoreThe counterattack is underway. Governments around the world are spending trillions of dollars to cushion their economies from the wrath of Covid-19. In the U.S., the rescue mission will cost a mammoth $2t, with $50b of that allocated for airlines...
Read MoreIt’s another week in the war against Covid-19, a once-in-a-century viral pandemic. Like everyone else on planet Earth, airlines are still in a phase of deeply uncomfortable uncertainty, especially about how long the war might last. A few weeks? A...
Read MoreIt’s man versus virus. An all-out war. And airlines are directly in the crossfire. Events are changing fast but last week, the theatre of battle shifted from east to west, with Italy now the center of the pandemic, and China...
Read MoreIt’s not just a problem for Chinese airlines anymore. Or just airlines in Asia. The Covid-19 virus outbreak is now obliterating demand for travel across the entire world. Suddenly, airlines even hearty and healthy just a week earlier find themselves...
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