Issues

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.

There’s a lot going right at United. Another strong financial result last quarter—and last year—places it alongside Delta in the circle of America’s global champions. Not so American. While avoiding…

It was telegraphed in advance. So not a big surprise. Still, the announcement of a Gol-Azul merger struck like a thunderbolt, shaking the foundations of South America’s airline industry. To…

Winter storms recently hit large swathes of the United States. What a perfect time, many Americans are surely thinking, to book a Florida vacation? This year, however, they’ll have fewer flight options. Airlines, led by struggling low-cost carriers, are tempering their Floridian enthusiasm. In this week's issue, Airline Weekly tries to make sense of current market trends in the all-important Sunshine State.

The new year is here and airlines have much to be thankful for. The industry enjoyed robust profitability in 2024—by its own lowly standards anyway. Demand was strong. Supply was…

Was 2024 a good year for the global airline industry? Yes. Demand was strong, supply was constrained, and fuel prices dropped as the year progressed. In this, our last issue of Airline Weekly before the new year, we look at the top trends and themes of the past year, one that many airlines will remember fondly.

Ten years ago, Airline Weekly published a story about Taiwan’s booming airline traffic. East Asian economies were growing rapidly, low-cost carriers were expanding aggressively, and Emirates had just launched services linking Taipei with its Dubai mega-hub. Today, as 2024 nears its end, Taiwan’s airline market is again flourishing, however the dynamics are rather different. In this week's feature, we examine the key factors driving impressive margins and double-digit growth.

Talk about bad luck. Greg Foran’s first day as chief executive of Air New Zealand was February 3rd, 2020. Barely a month later, the Covid virus all but grounded the airline’s passenger business. The crisis would end. But Foran’s luck didn’t get much better. Today, about 16% of ANZ’s jet fleet is grounded due to engine issues, affecting both B787s and A320-family Neos. Despite the woes, Foran and his team are bullish about the carrier's prospects, as we discover in this week's feature story.