Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 7: Checkmate for United? Not Quite

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 9: A New Frontier: 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 o... by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 18: Korean Air's Success Amid the Struggle: 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 fi... by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 10: Southwest’s Golden Years: 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 a... by Airline Weekly Lounge

20 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 2: Postcards from the Hedge: 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 th... by Airline Weekly Lounge

23 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 1: Can It Get Any Better?: 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, ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 13: Great American: 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 rec... by Airline Weekly Lounge

22 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 11: Lufthansa's Competition Grows: 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... by Airline Weekly Lounge

24 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 41: Korean Divergence: Why are we seeing such different results from the two big Korean airlines? Korean Air again overcame systemic challenges to deliver a standout performance in the first quarter. And although the fuel situation certainly helped, the story wasn’t only about... by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 3: The European Earnings Picture Is Complicated: 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-... by Airline Weekly Lounge

23 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 4: The Wild, Wild Eastern Market: 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’... by Airline Weekly Lounge

23 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 5: Cold Comfort in Canada: 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... by Airline Weekly Lounge

20 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 12: Delta's Payday: 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 ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

20 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 8: Africa's Biggest Airline?: 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 ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

22 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 17: EasyJet Does It: 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 th... by Airline Weekly Lounge

24 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 7: Checkmate for United? Not Quite: 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.”... by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 21: Ultra Low-Cost Competition: 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... by Airline Weekly Lounge

28 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 16: Spirit Air CEO Interview: 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 as... by Airline Weekly Lounge

29 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 23: Relatively Resilient Revenues by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 33: Is Virgin Merging With Alaska?: If the U.S. airline market were to see even more consolidation, what kind of effect would it have? That’s one question we consider in a discussion about the possible acquisition of Virgin America by another airline. We also talk about possible consolidat... by Airline Weekly Lounge

29 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 19: American Air CEO Interview: 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 ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

37 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 42: Ryanair's Runaway Success: Ryanair is like a runaway train, in that nothing seems to be able to stop it. Despite unfavorable hedges, terrorism, air traffic control strikes and plenty of economic weakness, the airline still managed to turn a profit during the historically weak firs... by Airline Weekly Lounge

32 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 56: Frontier Airlines CEO Interview: Because Frontier Airlines is a non-publicly-traded carrier (which, for one thing, means it doesn’t have earnings calls), it’s all the more interesting to interview the airline's CEO Barry Biffle. Of course, we asked about a possible merger with Spirit or... by Airline Weekly Lounge

23 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 31: Turkish Blend: It’s good to be a Gulf carrier—Gulf carriers are well positioned to connect the whole world. But it might be better to be a near-the-Gulf carrier like Turkish Airlines. Turkish offers a blend of service as an intercontinental carrier and also as a gatewa... by Airline Weekly Lounge

30 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 14: IAG Is A-OK: 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 n... by Airline Weekly Lounge

23 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 24: Rapidly Receding Revenues: 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 airlin... by Airline Weekly Lounge

31 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 40: Emirates Strikes Back: Emirates last week posted an operating margin nearing 10% for its fiscal year. That’s significantly better than the 7% the year before and a whole lot better than the 5%, 4%, and 3% posted in the years prior to that. Is the airline permanently out of its... by Airline Weekly Lounge

30 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 39: Eurowing and a Prayer: Is growing Eurowings a safe bet? Lufthansa’s low-cost unit had a rough first quarter and that might not be the last. Eurowings is growing like gangbusters, propelling itself into the teeth of a crowded airline market and doing so with an unproven low-cos... by Airline Weekly Lounge

31 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 46: Left Behind by Brexit?: In the wake of Brexit, will the U.K. be able to remain in the European Common Aviation Area? We don’t know. But we do know that if the U.K. is relegated to some other status, it would obviously impact airlines inside and outside the U.K. In this episode ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

38 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 35: Chinese Airlines Show Stress: Is China’s slowing economy taking its toll on the country’s Big Three carriers? So far Air China, China Eastern and China Southern have held up well and posted a rather good 2015. But the fourth quarter of 2015 showed some signs of deterioration—even by ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

29 min listen

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 37: Southwest and Alaska Outperform: While Delta, American and United have all seen both revenues and costs dropping, Southwest and Alaska just experienced the opposite in the first quarter. In fact, Southwest and Alaska rode a wave of rising revenues (say that three times fast) and rising ... by Airline Weekly Lounge

25 min listen

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Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 7: Checkmate for United? Not Quite

Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 7: Checkmate for United? Not Quite

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