Airline & travel industry news
Industry posts framed for av-geeks and frequent travelers. Direct, sourced, and written for readers who do not need the travel business dumbed down.
Latest
Aviation news · Analysis
Why Southwest's First Lounges Aren't Where Southwest Is Biggest
Four lounges open in Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu, and Nashville in late 2027. Six larger Southwest stations get nothing. Chase already has Sapphire Lounges at two of those six.
September 3, 2026 · 4 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
United Adds 10 International Cities for 2027, Six of Them on Single-Aisle Jets
Five of the new routes go to the A321XLR and one to a 737 MAX 8. The three European widebody cities get 767s that average 25 to 30 years old.
August 26, 2026 · 4 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Spirit's LaGuardia Slots Sold for $58.5 Million. Its Pricing Systems Drew $10 Million, Then $12.5 Million.
The estate has sold an office building, a maintenance hangar, and 22 takeoff and landing rights at LaGuardia. The cheapest thing on the list is the only one anybody is fighting about.
August 25, 2026 · 9 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
American's Seatback Screen Reversal Is What Nine Years Without a Product Strategy Costs
The airline is still pulling screens out of its oldest Airbuses this summer. In 2028 it starts putting them back into the same airframes, after nine years of arguing the opposite.
August 18, 2026 · 6 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
All Three of Austin's European Nonstops Belong to Foreign Airlines
Delta is expected to announce a Paris route on August 13, five years after American began dismantling the Austin network it built.
August 7, 2026 · 5 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Why Delta Turned Down a Merger With United
Scott Kirby went to Delta before he went to American. The two networks barely overlap, and Delta still said no.
August 5, 2026 · 4 min read
Loyalty · Analysis
Status by the Dollar: American, Delta, and United Built the Same Program at Three Different Prices
All three US majors qualify elite status on a currency denominated in dollars, and at two of them a credit card can do the whole job with no flying at all. What they charge for the top tier differs by more than double.
July 28, 2026 · 7 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Southwest's Record Quarter Is the First Real Read on Its Reinvention
Bag fees, basic fares, and assigned seating all hit the books together for the first time, and revenue set a record at $8.4 billion. Southwest still cut its full-year outlook. The two facts fit together: the rebuilt revenue engine works, and fuel decides what it earns.
July 23, 2026 · 5 min read
The Business of Travel · Analysis
How Google Makes Money on a Trip It Never Sells
Fifteen years after Google Flights was going to end the online travel agencies, Booking and Expedia are bigger than ever. Google's new AI booking tools explain why — and hint at how the next decade of travel gets paid for.
July 15, 2026 · 7 min read
Aviation news · Quick hit
American Brings Back Chicago–Tokyo Narita, Daily on the 787-9
American cut this route in January 2020 and announced a Seattle Pacific gateway a month later. The Seattle plan is dead, O'Hare is back, and the map looks like 2019 again.
July 5, 2026 · 4 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Gulf Carriers Are Taking Back the Europe Traffic Asian Airlines Borrowed
Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad carried a third of Asia–Europe passengers before the Iran war closed their hubs. Their schedules are back to roughly 90% — and the record loads Asian carriers posted all spring are deflating month by month.
July 2, 2026 · 5 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Riyadh Air Is Now Flying. Meet the Gulf's Fourth Super-Connector.
Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth-backed startup put a deep-violet 787-9 in the air this month, with Safran "Business Elite" suites up front and an order book topping 120 jets. A look at the product, the routes, and how it stacks up against Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad.
June 27, 2026 · 7 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
The Biggest World Cup Ever Is Here. U.S. Airlines Added 0.6% More Seats.
Forty-eight teams, 104 matches, three countries. For the largest sporting event ever held in North America, U.S. carriers grew June–July capacity by less than a percent — and the high-value international fan they would add seats for is the part of the crowd that didn't show.
June 24, 2026 · 5 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
IATA Halved Its 2026 Airline Profit Forecast. The Same Fuel Shock Hits Six Regions Six Different Ways.
The industry's fuel bill jumps from $252 billion to $350 billion this year, and profits shrink to $23 billion. The regional table underneath is the story: the Middle East swings from the world's best per-passenger profit to its worst, Europe's hedges buy a year, and largely unhedged North America keeps the top of the ladder anyway.
June 9, 2026 · 6 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Philippine Airlines Joins oneworld. The Alliance Is Adding Coverage, Not Scale.
PAL signed on as oneworld’s 16th member at the IATA meeting in Rio. By revenue, fleet, and passengers it lands in the middle of the pack. What it actually brings is a Manila hub and the Southeast Asia gap the alliance had been flying around.
June 9, 2026 · 5 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Why United Doesn't Need to Buy JetBlue: Blue Sky Is the Merger Without the Balance Sheet
Scott Kirby called a JetBlue merger "idiotic" and ruled out consolidation for the foreseeable future. United doesn't need it. Blue Sky — the partnership it struck a year ago — already hands United JFK slots, New York feed, and reciprocal loyalty, and it's built to clear the antitrust wall a merger never could.
May 30, 2026 · 7 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
The FAA Just Cut Its Controller Target. Three Rules Made the Old Number Impossible Anyway.
The 2026–2028 workforce plan trims the goal by about 2,000 controllers. The shortage is built into an entry-age cap, a forced retirement age, and a training pipeline that runs for years.
May 21, 2026 · 8 min read
Labor · Flight attendants
United's New Flight Attendant Deal: How It Compares to American's and Delta's, and What It Costs UAL
United settled with its 30,000 flight attendants on May 12 — a 31% raise, boarding pay for the first time, and $741 million in retro. Here's the deal in context: side by side with American's 2024 APFA contract and Delta's non-union compensation path, plus what the contract costs UAL's bottom line.
May 18, 2026 · 5 min read
Widebody strategy
787 vs A350: The Whole New-Widebody Market Until 2030
Boeing's 777-9 just slipped to 2027 again. With the bridge airframe out of the picture for the rest of the decade, every major full-service carrier's premium-cabin strategy is committed to the 787 or A350 bet it placed years ago.
May 11, 2026 · 7 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Six US Airlines Cut Summer Capacity. Frontier Added 3 Million Seats.
After Q1 earnings, the US airline industry split in half on capacity strategy. Same fuel curve, different math. The split tells you something the fuel narrative doesn't.
May 10, 2026 · 4 min read
Premium cabin economics
A 777 Premium Retrofit Costs ~$23M. The Real Bet Is Premium Demand Through 2030.
Every full-service carrier with a long-haul operation is in the middle of a multi-billion-dollar premium retrofit cycle. Here's what it actually costs, what the payback math says, and what the spreadsheet doesn't tell you.
May 9, 2026 · 12 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
American + Alaska JV Isn't a Smaller Merger. It's the First Step of a Bigger One.
American and Alaska are reportedly negotiating Alaska's entry into AA's joint ventures with British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Aer Lingus, and Japan Airlines. Most coverage reads this as the consolation prize for a merger that won't happen. The cleaner read: a JV is the move you make before a merger, not instead of one.
May 8, 2026 · 6 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Jet Fuel Doubled. Here's What's Already Different About Your Trip.
Routes cut, snacks gone, fares up 24% on domestic. The carrier holding up best isn't the one you'd guess — it's the one that bought a refinery in 2012.
May 7, 2026 · 6 min read
Hotel loyalty · Analysis
Hyatt Mayday: A Devaluation Shaped Like Marriott Circa 2022
Hyatt's award chart expands from three pricing tiers to five at the end of May. Marriott made the same change in 2022, then scrapped the chart entirely a few months later.
May 7, 2026 · 8 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
The Alaska / Hawaiian Merger Is Done. Except for the Pilots.
April 22 was the last major customer-facing step on the announced integration roadmap. From a passenger's chair, Alaska and Hawaiian function as one airline now. From a labor-contract chair, the merger has another chapter to go.
May 5, 2026 · 7 min read
Aviation news · Analysis
Every Day Robert Isom Stays Is a Question About AA's Board
The stock has stopped responding. The peers are 31–45× more profitable. Both unions have publicly lost confidence. A competitor publicly pitched buying the company. The board has had every reason to act and hasn't.
May 4, 2026 · 6 min read
Analysis
Spirit is gone. Here's the map of who actually won and lost.
The 'Spirit failed' headline writes itself. The interesting story is who got rewired — and the fact that most of Spirit's roughly 125 active aircraft will end up flying for international airlines, not American ones.
May 3, 2026 · 7 min read