Delta Air Lines' first quarter results beat analysts’ estimates. The airline raked in earnings of 96 cents a share on an adjusted basis, compared to analysts’ expectations of 90 cents (based on Refinitiv survey).Revenue for the quarter came in at $10.47 billion, surpassing estimates of $10.42 billion. President Glen Hauenstein mentioned the company’s “customer-focused commercial initiatives” as a strong reason behind customer loyalty and revenue. Delta could avoid the fallout from the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX jets, which have forced other carriers to cancel flights and switch to other types of aircrafts. Hauenstein said that the company now expects full-year revenue growth of 5% to 7%, which is an upward revision from its prior projection.

Delta reported 30% profit growth during the first quarter, with the Atlanta carrier earning $730 million, or $1.09 per share, for the quarter.A year earlier it earned $557 million, or 79 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains, came to 96 cents per share.

However, full-service carrier Hong Kong Airlines is not part of the deal. The acquisition came after Cathay’s prolonged desire to gain foothold in the budget travel market.For this, Cathay intends to continue operating HK Express as a standalone carrier using a low-cost business model.

American Airlines is cancelling 90 flights per day through April 24 as a result of the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft. Read More...

The result was nearly 40 canceled flights. The airline recently embarked on an interior remodeling project of its Boeing 737-800 called ‘Project Oasis’ that would add more seats, more power sockets and bigger overhead bins in order to increase revenue for each flight.AAL is also one of the many airlines who had recently adopted this strategy to enhance revenue. The remodeling was done by a third party vendor called Everett, a Washington-based Aviation Technical Services licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Dallas-based airline Southwest Airlines has been losing millions per week as flights continue to get cancelled, as maintenance issues owing to a feud with the mechanics’ union is resulting in an increased number of out-of-service jets. Recently, the airline sued the union over allegations that they are encouraging members to purposefully write-up minor maintenance issues to keep jets out of service in order to gain leverage in contract talks, which began more than six years ago. The union, however, denied such allegations. Previously, the airline has announced operational emergencies at several of its maintenance bases, giving an ultimatum to the mechanics to either show up at work or to lose their jobs. On Tuesday, 89 Southwest flights were cancelled, nearly 2% of its schedule, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.In comparison, JetBlue (JBLU) had 12 cancelled flights and United (UAL) had eight.

Southwest Airlines filed a lawsuit against its mechanics union on Thursday, accusing the workers of an illegal campaign to disrupt operations in order to improve their position in prolonged labor talks. Read More...

As a result, the airline has announced an ‘operational emergency’ due to the unusual number of grounded jets. Generally, the company plans to have as many as 20 aircraft removed from service for unexpected maintenance issues every day.'Hundreds' is a different story altogether, and signals bigger problems at the airline. This means that the percentage of out-of-service aircrafts among its available fleet of about 750 Boeing 737s has been at least double the daily average. The airline has subsequently announced a re-haul of its mechanics to address the maintenance items and quickly return aircraft to service.

When it comes to industry competition, executives at Delta Air Lines Inc. have never been accused of jabbing with soft elbows.That ferocity was on full display Thursday as the carrier launched its first Airbus SE A220 flights from Boston, Dallas and New York, deploying the technologically advanced aircraft in hotly contested business routes at large hubs that are critical to its rivals.

6%, the carrier reported a massive 11.4% gain in its total operating revenue per available seat mile ("TRASM") in Q4. Q4 proved to a productive period for the carrier as earnings reached $1.38 per share versus an estimated $1.39.While revenue reached $862.8 million versus an expected $852 million, an increase of 29.5% compared to the fourth quarter 2017. However, GAAP adjusted net income (excluding special items) for the fourth quarter 2018 stood at $91.9 million verses an estimate of $94.7 million.

On Thursday, American Airlines Group Inc. lowered its estimate for a key revenue metric for the fourth quarter. It is now expecting its unit revenue – which compares sales to flight capacity - to have grown about 1.5% in the quarter, compared with its earlier estimate of 1.5 - 3.5% increase. The airline also cut its full-year earnings per share estimate to a range of $4.40 to $4.60, from $4.50 to $5 earlier.Analysts were expecting earnings of $4.62 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. The news sent American Airlines shares tumbling -7 percent in pre-market trading.    

Delta Airlines stock price plunged -10% on Thursday, following the U.S. carrier’s statement that fourth-quarter unit revenue would slightly fall short of its prior forecast. Delta now projects total revenue per available seat mile to rise about 3 percent, compared with the 3.5 percent growth it forecast earlier.Lower-than-expected improvement in last-minute fares booked by travellers was  cited by the airline as a reason behind the less-than-expected unit revenue. Delta said, "While close-in yield momentum continues, the pace of improvement in late December was more modest than anticipated" .  

Referred by many as the no-frills airline, SAVE gave its investors a pleasant surprise in 2018 after its shares hit more than three-year high in early December, and now the company is worth around $3.8 billion after the year's gains. The company revealed that it grew its profit during the fourth quarter and has given a positive forecast looking ahead.According to government data, Spirit was remarkably on time in 2018, with nearly 81% of its flights reached on time -- a stark turnaround from previous years and also outpacing close rivals American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) and United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL).

Delta Airlines said last week that they expect to grow their bottom-line in 2019, thanks to increasing revenue and declining oil prices. Executives of the Atlanta-based carrier said that reducing oil prices is expected to help the entire aviation industry, as it’s generally the second-biggest expense after labor. The company expects its earnings per share to hover somewhere in-between $6 to $7, in line with analyst estimates, and about 20% higher than the estimated full-year profit analysts expect for this year.In terms of revenue, Delta expects it to grow at 4% to 6% along with a 3% growth in capacity, in line with analysts’ expectations. Delta also expects its revenue per available seat mile, a key industry gauge of how much money the airline is bringing in for every seat it flies a mile, to be up 3.5% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.

One such stock is American Airlines (Nasdaq: AAL) and it has jumped almost 25% in the last three weeks.Keep in mind that the S&P 500 is up a whopping 2.5% in the last three weeks. Despite the sharp rally by American, the stock is facing some resistance just ahead in the form of the upper rail of a downward-sloped trend channel.

The Boeing 777 and the 787 Dreamliner are two of hottest selling wide-body airliners in the world.The dynamic duo has effectively supplanted the iconic 747 jumbo jet as the Boeing's go-to plane for long-haul flying. READ MORE...

Ryanair is cutting its profit projections, as the European low-cost airline struggles with flight cancellations, fuel costs and staff strikes. It announced profit forecast for the current fiscal year in the range of  €1.1 billion ($1.27 billion) to €1.2 billion ($1.39 billion) – which is around €150 million ($174 million) lower than the company’s previous expectation.Spike in fuel costs further pressured margins for the company. As for cabin crew strikes - something it's been facing since December 2017 - the airline has yet to settle disputes with union officials in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium.

Dubai’s flagship airline  Emirates might want to buy Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, according to a Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the matter is confidential.The report suggests that there might have been preliminary talks of Emirates’ considering an acquisition of the main airline business of Etihad.  Both the airlines first refused to comment and then denied that any such talks happened, as mentioned in the Bloomberg article.

Hackers stole credit card information of 380,000 customers of British Airways. The company announced that cyber criminals got access to the names, addresses, emails and credit card details including the card number, expiration date and security code of travelers who booked flights on British Airways' website and app between August 21 and September 5.British Airways has promised to pay for a credit check for customers and to compensate them for any losses. According to the airline, it began notifying customers late on Thursday. Some customers on Friday complained that they first got to know about it from the media versus the company, while some others claimed to have received blank emails from the airline.

United Airlines, Inc. has raised checked baggage fees, apparently to combat surging fuel costs eating into profits. The carrier will now charge $30 and $40 for checking the first and second bags respectively (compared to the earlier charges of $25 for the first bag and $35 for the second).The new higher fees will apply to flights operating on the North American, Caribbean and Central American routes. This follows the recent baggage fee hikes by JetBlue, Air Canada and WestJet.