Airline Weekly Lounge

Qatar Airways took a page from Etihad's book and invested in a European carrier. This elicited howls from the major U.S. airlines. They claimed this move was nothing more than a Trojan Horse strategy for Qatar to operate fifth-freedom flights to the U.S. from Europe (but not quite, since Air Italy was a European carrier). Air Italy never fulfilled its promise — or threat, depending on where you st...

A federal court is wading into the arcana of airline distribution. It's assessing whether there are antitrust issues with travel tech company Sabre's proposed acquisition of Farelogix. But what exactly is the deal? And why does the government have concerns? Skift Senior Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill takes us through an explainer on what Sabre and Farelogix do, why the government cares, and why y...

French Bee President Marc Rochet  is confident the airline's upcoming Newark-Orly flights will be successful, because the key to the airline's wins so far is its simplicity, he said. But will it work? Rochet said simplicity — in fleet, in network, in product — is key to why the airline is working when so many other European leisure carriers have failed. 

Just what is going on in California? JetBlue is drawing down at Long Beach and dropping Oakland altogether, while United is adding flights to small California cities. Can any airline make a go of the Los Angeles Basin's secondary airports? What about the San Francisco Bay Area's secondary airports? Why is Spirit launching one of its longest flights to Oakland? Join Skift's resident Californians, M...

Airline Weekly talks this week to Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte on the news of International Airlines Group CEO Willie Walsh's retirement announcement. Walsh has been a powerhouse in the airline industry, helping transform British Airways into a pan-European behemoth. London-based Whyte walks us through the reaction in the United Kingdom. He also takes a look at what Flybe's financial problems...

A single year can result in dramatic change within the airline industry, so an entire decade could see it completely transformed. After 10 years of strong profits and relatively stable oil prices in the 2010s, what does the decade ahead hold in store for the U.S. airline industry? Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan and co-founder and Senior Analyst Jay Shabat game out what might happen in the next 5–10 yea...

It's that time of year again. Airline Weekly Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan and Senior Analyst Jay Shabat look back on the year that was. It was yet another tumultuous year in this industry we love: Storied names like Thomas Cook, among others, went out of business, and the B737 MAX — one of the world's best-selling aircraft — was grounded. Can anyone make low-cost, longhaul flights work? Will Boeing e...

Skeptics might say the airport of the future has always been just around the corner, but maybe the "smart airport" really is a thing.  Skift Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill tells Airline Weekly Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan about how advances in technology are improving the passenger experience, baggage tracking, and security. Hear what some of the world's more innovative airports are doing to impleme...

It's not other airlines. It's the bus. That's where Mexican ultra-low-cost carrier Volaris sees the most opportunity to grow: by poaching passengers from the country's long-distance bus network. In this episode of the Airline Weekly Lounge, Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan talks to Skift Travel Editor-in-Chief Tom Lowry about Volaris' growth strategy, how it allows passengers to pay for tickets, and why...

Will there be a deal or won't there? The Indian government now says it wants to sell 100% of the state-owned carrier, but who will buy it? The airline is notoriously saddled with debt and has a restive labor force. Airline Weekly Senior Analyst Jay Shabat acknowledges Air India's problems but notes that the beleaguered carrier actually has some strengths and assets that a would-be buyer could find...

Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte joined Skift Airline Weekly Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan to share his insights on the latest in European airline news. First, of course, Whyte takes a look at why Air Europa's parent company Globalia would want to sell one of its largest business units to IAG. Is there a future for vertically integrated travel companies, especially after behemoth Thomas Cook went ban...

International Airlines Group (IAG) had a surprise for the airline industry this week: It stated its intention to buy Spanish carrier Air Europa. This wasn't a surprise to Skift Airline Weekly, however, which earlier this year reported on the rumors afloat about the acquisition. What's in it for IAG?  Skift Airline Weekly Senior Analyst Jay Shabat walked us through the rationale for the acquisition...

Skift Airline Weekly Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan caught up with Anders Lindström, Norwegian's director of communications for the U.S., at San Francisco International Airport on Monday when the carrier launched San Francisco-Barcelona flights. Lindström explained why Norwegian is moving some flights from Oakland to SFO, and what routes in the U.S. are doing well for the carrier. He also talked throug...

The UK government this week engages in another set of inquiries on why Thomas Cook went bankrupt, which is the perfect time to ask Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte, who has been covering the story, what happened. How did the "booking clerk to the empire" go belly-up after more than 150 years? Whyte explains that the company was struggling under a massive debt load and had struggled with maintaini...

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, and oil prices of $148 per barrel, among other trial...

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 leaving KLM largely alone). American Airlines Chief Financial Officer Derek...

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 the state from California. He explained w...

Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of aviation for Clark County, Nevada, leads operations at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport 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 today,...

Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram isn't too worried about increasing competition from U.S. and Japanese carriers on routes to Hawaii. During an an interview with Skift Airline Weekly Editor Madhu Unnikrishnan in Las Vegas on Aug. 26, Ingram said  Hawaiian has been competing fiercely on those routes for 90 years, so this is nothing new, Ingram said. What is new, at least since Aloha and Go went ba...

AirBaltic was an early adopter of the Airbus A220, back when it was the Bombardier CSeries. The aircraft is perfectly designed for the Baltic carrier's missions, and CEO Martin Gauss is enthusiastic about the model. He took a few minutes to talk to Skift Airline Weekly editor Madhu Unnikrishnan and Skift Senior Aviation Business Editor Brian Sumers at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Seoul in Ju...

Just before stepping down as CEO of British regional carrier Flybe, Christine Ourmieres-Widener took a minute to talk to Skift Airline Weekly at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Seoul. Ourmieres-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 she focused on saving the airline and gett...

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 Airlines reported profit margins lower than analysts expecte...

  United Airlines President Scott Kirby issued a warning to potential new-entrant low-cost-carriers, including JetBlue founder David Neeleman’s Moxie: United will match your fares. Kirby, speaking on stage at Skift Forum Asia in Singapore in June, said he’s heard of about 50 airlines over the years that were supposed to be created but Virgin America, founded in 2004, was the last startup airline i...

The latest edition of the Skift Airline Weekly Lounge contains an exclusive interview with Aireen Omar, AirAsia’s deputy CEO. There was no backtracking from AirAsia in its plan to branch out into selling other airlines on its platform, financial services, and more experiences. Asked at Skift Forum Asia in Singapore in May 2019 if becoming the Amazon of travel is overly ambitious, Aireen Omar, AirA...

The Skift Airline Weekly Lounge returns with an exclusive interview with British Airways CEO Alex Cruz. Since taking over as CEO and chairman of British Airways in 2016, Cruz has endured his fair share of criticism over some of the changes he made to the airline, particularly with regards to food on short-haul flights. But Cruz, speaking at Skift Forum Europe in London on April 30, 2019, said the...