Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK Airport: Earnings Week is Here

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On this week’s episode, Brian and I butt heads. I’ve been watching Spirit’s network moves, and I see an opportunity for Spirit to cozy up to Sun Country. Brian thinks I’m insane. Come on in and listen for yourself and then decide why Brian is wrong…

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American’s WaywAArd Q1 Fiscal Results

American’s Q1 reporting would have made Dennis Green proud — they were what we thought they were. AA posted a net loss of $473 million on $12.6 billion in gross revenue. That compares to a year ago in Q1 when the carrier posted a similar gross revenue figure of about $12.6 billion and lost only $312 million on that number.

As is the case with everyone else, premium demand was up, with everything else staying the same or going backwards. More than half of its costs came in the form of fuel ($2.6 billion) and salaries ($4.2 billion) — so if it could figure out a way to fly its planes without gas and not have to pay employees, everything would be just fine. The carrier did say that AAdvantage sign ups were up 6% YoY and corporate demand continues to improve after the airline’s ill-advised sales and distribution debacle last year, so it’s not all bad news.

More notably, the airline removed its forward-looking guidance due to the uncertainty in the economy. It says it’ll issue a new guidance when the economic outlook becomes clearer. Ok, so January 2029. Got it.

Southwest Exceeds Expectations

Southwest Airlines Q1 earnings featured a loss of $149 million — better than was expected, although that figure didn’t account for the airline also losing its soul during the year’s first three months.

Southwest earned a gross revenue figure of $6.4 billion, a 1.6% increase from ’24. The $6.43 billion in revenue was higher than the $6.4 that was predicted, so score one for Elliott. The loss of $0.13 per share was significantly better than the $0.18 loss which was expected — and bag fees haven’t even gone into effect yet. Q2 should start to see the benefits, when we also expect Southwest to cut baggage handlers and have people load their own luggage into the hold, making the “experience” part of the new bag fees.

Going forward, Southwest says it will reduce capacity in the second half of the year. It expects Q2 revenues to be somewhere between even and down 4% from last year while claiming it hasn’t seen any evidence of customers taking their business elsewhere in the wake of their policy changes. Which, for the record, is exactly what one would say if the people who instituted the new policies were standing there as the earnings report was crafted.

Alaska Posts Loss, but Still Expects Full-Year Profit

Next up for Earnings Week is Alaska and its warm-weather brother Hawaiian. Alaska joined American in declining to update its full-year forecast due to concerns over the economy, but it does still expect to turn a profit for the full year. As far as Q2 is concerned, Alaska thinks that its revenue will finish somewhere between even and down as much as 6%.

Alaska posted a Q1 net loss of $166 million on $3.14 billion in revenue, just missing its expected output of $3.17 billion. The loss is worse than Q1 last year when the airline lost just $132 million to in the first three months of the year. Alaska did see a 5% uptick in unit revenue — saying it led the industry in domestic unit revenue.

Alaska and its subsidiaries grew capacity by almost 4% in the quarter, and revenue grew 9% YoY. It saw premium revenue jump 10%, again showing that the pointy end of the plane is going to continue to be resilient in the yo-yo that is this economy, while those behind the curtain will be far more price sensitive. The carrier finished the quarter with $2.5 billion in unrestricted cash, marketable securities, and a heap of POG juice and ukulele futures.

FAA Welcomes Thailand Back to the Cool Kids Table

It took 10 years, but Thai aviation is back in the good graces of the U.S. government after the FAA upgraded Thailand’s aviation safety back to Category 1 and out of the purgatory that is Category 2.

The (complimentary?) upgrade will again permit nonstop service between the two countries, potentially paving the way for Thai to resume services to the west coast if it is worried that it’s not losing enough money. It also allows for codeshare agreements to resume and could be an impetus for increased travel between the two countries, provided Thai citizens are not required to visit Newark.

Category 1 status was officially instituted this past Tuesday following a reassessment process that began last November.

WestJet Rolls Back Controversial Pilot Hiring

WestJet said “nevermind” to its plan to hire pilots through Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TWFP), claiming “broader economic turbulence” as its reasoning, although that may have just been a typo and it actually meant “border economic turbulence,” which would have also been correct.

The program was established in the early ’70s to allow Canadian companies to bring temporary foreign workers into the country (that’s where it got the clever name), especially around important times of the year such as hockey season and maple syrup gathering time. ALPA, unsurprisingly opposed this move on several levels, one of which was the idea that the TWFP was not designed for pilots, which, seems like something ALPA would say.

Canada is in the midst of a federal election season that will conclude on Monday, and labor groups including ALPA plan to lobby the new government to review the TFWP and institute more protectionist policies — something likely learned about by turning on Fox News.

• Alaska is growing in San Diego.
• American redesigned its AApp.
• Avelo is lessening its presence in the USA.
• Cathay is bracing for a drop in air cargo revenue due to the U.S. – China trade war.
• Congo Airlines is still an airline. Technically.
• Delta‘s JV with LATAM will now include service to Argentina.
• EVA scheduled the launch of its service to Dallas/Fort Worth to begin flying on October 3, a month earlier than previously thought.
• flyadeal signedadeal for 10 A330-900s.
• Frontier picked the vendor to make its new first class seat.
• Hawaiian is moving closer to Alaska’s operation at several airports.
• IndiGo named former FAA Michael Whitaker to its board of directors.
• Iran Air scored two A330-200s.
• JetBlue TrueBlue members can now use their points for JAL redemptions.
• Korean has resumed operating its B747-8i to Atlanta, taking back the title from Lufthansa for longest scheduled B747 passenger route.
• Lufthansa is using its Swiss registry to avoid some EU-focused tariffs.
• Qatar Airways announced a new strategic partnership with Philippine Airlines, on the condition that PR hire Richard Nuttall as its new president.
• Philippine Airlines named Richard Nuttall as its new president.
• Riyadh Air is getting closer to becoming a real airline.
• Spirit iss backk onn thee NYSEE withh thee tickerr symboll FLYY.
• Thai is leasing nine A321neos.
• United is adding flights to two Mexican destinations Mexico City and Punta Cana from Denver.
• Virgin Atlantic‘s new clubhouse at LAX is now available for Priority Pass members at no additional charge except the $35 per person charge that is collected at the entrance.

We had a guy in a friend group in grad school who’s name was Hunter, but after graduating college he became a vegan. So we all called him Gatherer instead.