American Takes Direct Aim at United

One day after United CEO Scott Kirby said his airline will match any growth by American at their shared Chicago/ORD hub, AA called his bluff announcing flights to three new destinations from the airport. Buckle up. American will add year-round, 2x daily flights to both Allentown (ABE) and Columbia (CAE), with service beginning on both May 21. It will also fly winter service to Kahului (OGG) from Dec 17. United flies all of these today… and it’ll probably fly them a lot more now.

Both of the short-haul flights will be operated by American Eagle while Kahului would be if an Embraer could fly that far. Instead, AA will have to settle for a B787-8. To promote the service and differentiate it from United, American plAAns to give all Kahului passengers a Chicago-style hot dog and a deep dish pizza upon boarding. It’s currently working with Boeing to outfit its B787 fleet with more restrooms to account for the giveaways.

It’s not just Chicago where American is adding, as the carrier also announced two new nonstop money-losing routes from Los Angeles, where 1x daily, year-round flights to both Cleveland and Washington/Dulles begin April 7. It’s another shot across the bow at United, adding on two routes UA currently operates from LAX, to a major hub for the carrier (IAD) and a former hub (CLE).

United’s ’25 was Good, but Expects ’26 to be Better

United Airlines earnings for 2025 left the airline with plenty to brag about, not the least of which was net income of $3.4 billion for the year, a figure which could buy a lot of room nights at the Newark Howard Johnson. It ended a strong year with a strong fourth quarter on $15.4 billion revenue, a nearly 5% jump from Q4 last year. Its profit for the final quarter was a cool $1 billion, despite TRASM being down 1.6%.

UA ended the year with $15.2 billion in liquidity and $2.7 of free cash flow. Its report boasts that it had a higher on-time arrival rate and lower cancellation rate in Chicago than its largest competitor. However it failed to name the competitor, leaving us, Cranky Nation, to guess if it meant Breeze or Turkish Airlines.

Looking forward, United says it epects to earn between $12 and $14 per share in 2026, with $1-$1.50 of that coming during Q1. This comes after a $10.20 per share profit in 2025, an 8% leap from ’24, which comes after it was forced to lower its forecast for 2025 in the aftermath of the government shutdown and its accompanying ATC issues.

Spirit Seeks Possible Takeover

Spirit Airlines is reportedly begging in discussions with investment firm Castlelake for a possible takeover of the carrier. Airline executives say the attempt to offer the airline to the investment firm is actually an experiment to see what happens when one ignores the “buy low, sell high” mantra and instead does the literal opposite.

Castlelake has been involved in aviation for several years. It launched a new aviation arm last year with nearly $2 billion in capital. Despite the large cash sum, it’s woefully understocked on yellow paint Sand BuzzBalls, making it an excellent candidate to use Spirit’s assets effectively. Frontier has been identified as a potential merger partner for Spirit for a few years now, but multiple attempts have failed and the payday loan place stopped returning Spirit’s calls, leaving the airline turning to new potential lifelines.

Alaska’s Profit was Down, but Still a Profit

In the year it combined its operating certificate with Hawaiian, Alaska Airlines finished 2025 with a profit of $100 million, down from the $395 million it earned in ’24. Its Q4 was down a similar amount YoY with $21 million earned compared to $71 million in the year prior. Q4 gross revenue was $3.6 billion, while the figure for the entire year finished at $14.2 billion, a 21% jump from 2024, most of which came from cashing in much of Hawaiian’s POG juice futures.

Alaska has a positive forward-looking outlook for 2026, noting it’s already off to a good start with bookings in January outpacing last year. It expects ASMs to be up 2-3% for the year, and earnings per share to be as high a $6.50 despite a predicted loss between $0.50 and $1.50 for the year’s first quarter.

The airline took special care to note its network updates for the year to include two new destinations in Eureka and Tulsa, marking the first time in recorded history those two cities were spotlighted together for anything.

It ended the year with $684 million in cash and cash equivalents, down from $835 million it had at the end of September. When asked what happened to the $149 million that went away in the year’s final three months, CEO Ben Minicucci declined to comment except to confirm off-the-record that the company holiday party this year featured “the biggest chocolate fountain you’ve ever seen.”

Oh, Canada: Air Canada, WestJet New Longhaul Destinations

Both major Canadian carriers announced major new international routes this week, with AC adding nonstop service between Vancouver and Sapporo, marking the first nonstop flight from North America to the Japanese airport. Meanwhile, its rival WestJet announced the first nonstop flight from Western Canada to Brazil, adding service between its Calgary hub and São Paulo/GRU.

YVR-CTS will operate seasonally on Air Canada next winter and will fly 3x weekly. Sapporo will be Air Canada’s third fourth airport in Japan following the two in one in Tokyo and one near Tokyo (plus Osaka).

Meanwhile, WestJet will fly 3x weekly down to GRU from Calgary. The flight will operate using a B787 Dreamliner, and clocks in at about 5,700 nm, making it WestJet’s longest flight by more than 1,000 nm, knocking YYC-ICN out of the top spot. The flight will operate as WS54 and WS55, a shoutout to Brazil’s +55 telephone code but also a warning to Argentina’s +54 code that it won’t be flying there.

GRU will make two South American destinations for WestJet, joining Medellín in the WS family. São Paulo will now have service to three cities in Canada, as this flight joins Air Canada service to both Montréal and Toronto.

• Aeroflot bought two A320s, reportedly from a guy in Gorky Park who had them inside his winter coat along with “authentic” Rolex watches and DVDs of first-run American films that aren’t even in theatres yet.
• Air Arabia is turning to Argentina and Chile to find A320 pilots.
• Air Europa completed an order for 40 A350-900s.
• American is finding new and more efficient ways to tell you your flight is delayed or canceled.
• ANA continues to grow.
• Avelo extended its schedule through August 18.
• Breeze, and more specifically CEO David Neeleman are the target of an anti-union lawsuit from ALPA.
• Cathay Pacific is going to run it back with AA’s More Room Throughout Coach.
• easyJet is adding three new routes this summer.
• Ethiopian completed an order for nine B787-9 Dreamliners last month.
• JAL expects to join ANA is receiving its first B737 MAX 8s this year.
• JetBlue and JSX are consciously uncoupling.
• LOT will receive three more B737 MAX 8s as they began their journey to fly a lot of miles from Seattle to Warsaw.
• Lufthansa is adding two new airplanes — an A320neo and A350-900 to its 100th anniversary fleet.
• Porter is closing two crew bases.
• Riyadh Air is getting into the cargo game.
• Ryanair is expanding its base in Tirana.
• Skylease, a U.S. cargo carrier operated its first flight to Venezuela in nearly 10 years.
• Wizz Air will add five routes.

Farmhand: “I rounded up the sheep in the pen.”

Farmer: “I said to get all 50, I only see 47.”

Farmhand: “I told you, I rounded up.”