Airline Weekly Lounge

Finnair, Norwegian and Icelandair all had rather forgettable off-peak fourth quarters, but not because of the chilly weather they are all enduring. Rather, each has a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Finnair’s challenges include exposure to Asia and transatlantic competition, but there’s hope in seat densification. Norwegian is painfully exposed to Norway’s struggling oil industry, but...

Singapore Airlines swung back to solid profits in 2015. Does this turnaround mean the airline is returning to its former glory, not seen since 2010? Or are low fuel prices just making everyone look good? Korean Air and Asiana continue to struggle with profit margins that barely stayed in positive territory. And the two Korean carriers are facing a new threat by way of some possible deregulation fr...

JetBlue’s big fourth quarter was kind of a big deal. Low oil prices essentially mean that every airline is making money right now, but JetBlue’s 21% operating margin is about more than just oil prices. The airline is changing, and the results are visible in the earnings. American Airlines set a record for annual profits in 2015—a triumph no doubt, even if the airline’s revenue picture is as ugly a...

Where Delta’s revenues were relatively resilient, United’s are rapidly receding, at least in the fourth quarter. In Episode 24—informally “part two” of U.S. earnings season—we discuss the sources of United’s revenue declines and the many moves the airline can make to restore them. Two other airlines, meanwhile, seem to have all the right moves. Southwest is enjoying being safely cocooned in the he...

Delta kicked off earnings season with—yawn—another record-breaking fourth quarter highlighted by a pre-tax profit that starts with a “b” (and ends with an “illion.”) The success is coming from a lot of baskets including cheap oil, operational performance and the fact that Delta’s revenues are holding up somewhat better than United’s and American’s, who report later. We try to break down Delta’s st...

Regardless of whether it’s up or down, India’s airline market tends to be one of thrills and spills. And right now, we’re seeing both—IndiGo is providing the thrills, Air India the spills. Meanwhile, Jet Airways and SpiceJet are holding their own. Believe it or not, that’s a step forward. Not too long ago, it was all misery. Are we seeing the beginning of a stabilizing trend fueled by, well, cheap...

Ultra-low-cost carriers like Frontier Airlines are facing in 2016 a whole different animal—a beast that we call “fare compression.” In fact, America in 2016 might see a first-time experiment in which the ultra-low-cost model goes up against the forces of low fuel, a good economy and healthy legacy competition. In this week’s episode we also discuss Ben Baldanza’s departure from Spirit Airlines. We...

Mexico is finding joy in a low-cost carrier renaissance as Volaris, Interjet and VivaAerobus are all growing and profiting. But the profits aren’t being distributed equally. Why is one carrier performing so much better than another? Also, how long can these airlines keep growing before they run out of elbow room? North of the border, Virgin America meanwhile is shifting to a high-growth gear. Cana...

Shouldn’t Doug Parker be dancing in the end zone? He is, after all, the CEO of a mega-airline with mega-profits at a time of economic strength and falling fuel prices. But even this airline has challenges. In this week’s episode, we ask him how American plans to remain a profit champion in the face of new and growing competitive threats. As it happened, the interview coincided with the big announc...

The number of challenges facing Korean Air could fill an A380. Nonetheless the airline remains quite profitable. Korean Air’s prime competitor, Asiana, has not been as fortunate, and we discuss the differences. Meanwhile, Aegean Airlines is doing just fine—more than fine, even—in a very tough economic environment. No stranger to a tough economic environment, Brazil’s Azul is trying to hold its own...

Not so surprisingly, easyJet wrapped up a strong earnings season in Europe with some strong numbers of its own. We looked at what’s working for easyJet but also why it can’t quite top rivals Ryanair or Wizz Air. Then it’s pretty much all downhill from there. Most airlines can top Air Berlin right now. Thai Airways is struggling with overcapacity and political unrest. Though things have improved si...

More than anything, Spirit Airlines’ business model is built on low fares, which it uses to stimulate demand and fill its planes. But what happens when fuel prices drop, enabling airlines like JetBlue to drop fares too? In a wide-ranging interview, we asked Spirit’s CEO Ben Baldanza about such “fare compression.” We also asked him about the possibility of Spirit chasing corporate traffic (like Rya...

Whew! The busiest week of earnings season has us hustling. We kick off our around-the-world sprint with IAG, the airline group that is British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and more recently Aer Lingus. While IAG led Europe’s Big Three in profits, Lufthansa nonetheless posted its own all-time record, and Air France/KLM was no slouch. Still benefiting from its restructuring, Japan Airlines had fantastic...

Well that didn’t last long. American Airlines, the biggest carrier in the world, set a new quarterly profit record, with a $1.9b net profit in the third quarter. Of course, there are some technicalities at play here, but it broke Delta’s two-week old record. Maybe even more astonishing was United’s $1.7b figure. Has United finally narrowed the performance gap between itself and Delta and American?...

How did Delta achieve its record-breaking quarter? We touch on some of the root causes, including Delta’s push for cheap aircraft and near-perfect operations. Also, we discuss Delta’s plan for flat or zero capacity growth in the fourth quarter. And will Delta hold on to its shiny new earnings record for longer than two weeks? Meanwhile, contrary to a lot of other airlines, JetBlue is seeing an inc...

Lufthansa is facing competition from Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, Air Berlin, Vueling, Turkish Airlines, Emirates and probably your brother. Competition is not a new thing, but the severity is growing. Meanwhile, Air New Zealand resides in a small country in a location that’s not exactly the stuff of dreams to a network planner. But still it makes plenty of profits. How does it do so well? American...

In airline years, Southwest is certainly old enough to be put out to pasture. Instead, the massive airline is making money like never before. Could some of its contrarian moves, like no bag fees, actually be working? Or is it something else? Oil prices are driving low fares around the world, and that is driving traffic figures despite even some sluggish economies. One airline seeing remarkable tra...

Posting a $54m profit in its second quarter, Frontier Airlines has joined the ranks of America’s most profitable airlines. Frontier and America’s other ultra-low-cost carrier, Spirit, are both highly profitable and have big growth ambitions. As long as oil prices remain low, they should go far. Meanwhile, Norwegian is taking a stab at the low-cost longhaul game in the transatlantic market. Is this...

Ethiopian Airlines is growing aggressively—and apparently profitably—while other African carriers are struggling. The airline’s centralized location seems to give it a big advantage over other African carriers. Meanwhile, Ethiopian doesn’t face a lot of competition within Africa. Have its fortunate location and smart business moves made it the biggest carrier in Africa? In India, where there are w...

Can United Airlines’ new CEO overcome the carrier’s inherent challenges? United is big, powerful and, at the moment, very profitable. But it’s also underperforming Delta and American. When United and Continental merged, it was supposed to be “checkmate.” And so far it has been—but for the wrong team. Does it matter that the new CEO is not an airline guy? He’s not the first CEO with a railroad back...

Canada may be a cold place, but right now its two major airlines are cruising along with comfortable profit margins. Still, what we’re seeing from WestJet and Air Canada is a far cry from what U.S. carriers are experiencing. Why is there such a disparity of results within North America? Also, we head to the Korean peninsula to talk about Asiana and Korean Air, both of which endured a number of cha...

The creditors of bankrupt Skymark Airlines chose All Nippon Airways (ANA) as its equity partner going forward. This of course leaves Delta—again!—without a dance partner in Asia. With that news, we take the opportunity to consider the condition of Japan’s long-time duopoly. What does this mean for Japan Airlines (JAL) and Delta’s Asia business? Virgin Australia is having a tough time while Philipp...

With most European airlines having now reported second-quarter earnings, the picture is filling in. But it’s a mosaic—not a portrait. Some carriers did well. Some did lousy. One thing we learned from Ryanair and Wizz Air is that it’s good to be an ultra-low-cost carrier in Europe right now. As for the legacy carriers, it’s not all bad—especially if your home economy is in the UK and you’re somewha...

American Airlines doesn’t hedge its jet fuel, and now it’s enjoying the fruits of that somewhat contrarian strategy. Is AA onto something here? Is fuel hedging a smart play? Will other airlines mimic AA and reject hedging altogether? Those are some of the questions I ask Seth Kaplan in our second episode of The Airline Weekly Lounge. Also, while AA was on the right side of the fuel hedge bet, Air...

Our inaugural episode of the Airline Weekly Lounge went live today. Within it, Seth Kaplan and I discuss this golden age for U.S. aviation. Can profits get any better? Along those lines, Delta reported earnings last week. They were exemplary, of course, even despite wrong-way fuel hedges. And Norwegian released its second quarter report as well. Norwegian is, of course, most interesting because of...