Category: Weekly Recap
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Southwest Unveils a Timeline for Assigned Seats, and Announces a Partnership with… Icelandair?
The Main Squawk: Southwest to rollout premium seating alongside assigned seating in 2026 Last week, Southwest held its long-awaited “Investor Day” in Dallas, announcing major changes in how the Airline will conduct its business. The Company has been under scrutiny from activist investor Elliott since the spring, prompting the Airline to make leadership changes and…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Southwest Braces for Major Network Changes, DOT OK’s Alaska-Hawaiian Merger
The Main Squawk: Southwest COO hints at major network changes ahead of the Company’s “Investor Day,” apologizes in advance Southwest COO Andrew Watterson says the Company will have to make some “difficult decisions” as it works to “drive [the network] back to profitability.” The comment, revealed in a leaked internal video update, included an apology…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Boeing Machinists Go on Strike, Elliott Earns a Win at Southwest
The Main Squawk: 30,000+ aerospace workers at Boeing walk off the job Just a few weeks after Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg took the helm at the struggling aircraft manufacturer, he is already dealing with a pocket of severe turbulence. A tentative agreement between the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and the…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: JetBlue Raises Its Third-Quarter Revenue Forecast, and Capacity Cuts are Enroute
The Main Squawk: JetBlue is raising its third-quarter revenue forecast Thanks to a stronger summer travel season and more robust operational performance than originally planned, the Queens-based carrier announced Thursday that it could see a modest gain in revenue of up to 1% compared to Q3 2023. It added that while a drop in revenue…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: JetBlue is Rumored to Soon Offer Early Outs, Southwest Ramps Up Its Red Eye Game
Happy Labor Day, everyone! Hopefully you’re enjoying some time off, but if you’re working over the weekend, I’m sure you’re enjoying the lucrative holiday pay that comes with blocking in just a few minutes past midnight on September 2. The Main Squawk: JetBlue may soon offer “pilot buyouts” to aid its return to profitability A…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Alaska and Hawaiian Clear a DOJ Hurdle, Breeze Invades Avelo’s Home Turf
The Main Squawk: Alaska and Hawaiian make it through the DOJ review period unscathed In a clear win for Alaska and Hawaiian, the DOJ passed on its opportunity to review the merger within their regulatory review period. The decision comes on the heels of the failed JetBlue/Spirit merger which more or less indicated that airlines…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Elliott Turns Up the Heat on Southwest, JetBlue Pumps the Brakes on Its European Expansion
The Main Squawk: At Southwest, Elliott gets ready to take out the trash Elliott is continuing to dig deep in its fight to instill change at Southwest. On Thursday, it announced plans to replace ten of the fifteen directors sitting on the Airline’s Board. The replacements range from former airline CEOs and executives from Air…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Frontier Believes in an Alternate Reality, Breeze Follows Avelo’s Lead, Allegiant is Extra
The Main Squawk: Frontier sees itself as “the last man standing” in the ULCC market Frontier CEO Barry Biffle made some radical comments during the Company’s Q2 earnings call last week. He said that although its industry peers are struggling, aircraft lessors see the Denver-based carrier as “the last man standing” in the ULCC market.…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: CrowdStrike and Microsoft Fight Back with Delta, Spirit Reports a Further Loss, and Southwest’s Exploding Soda Cans
The Main Squawk: CrowdStrike and Microsoft call Delta’s bluff Last week, we reviewed Delta’s operational meltdown after a CrowdStrike outage led to tens of thousands of flight cancellations across the globe. It took the Company five days to recover—three times longer than any other carrier—forcing CEO Ed Bastian to do what he does best and…
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You’re on Guard! Weekly Recap: Delta Refuses to Own-Up to Its Operational Meltdown, Southwest Gets With the Times
The Main Squawk: Delta has its worst operational meltdown ever Delta’s horrific recovery from the CrowdStrike outage that occurred on Fri, July 19, was by-far the worst operational failure the U.S. airline industry has seen since the Southwest holiday travel meltdown in 2022. While the faulty update CrowdStrike pushed to its security software was certainly…
