Skift Take
It's never dull in the airline industry, and the first half of 2019 has been no exception. We were hard-pressed to single out the most interesting region. But the industry in Europe had the wildest ride in the first half, with high-profile bankruptcies, a few strikes, impending acquisitions, changing business models, and the perennial Alitalia saga.
There's never a dull moment in the airline industry, and there's never really a dull region. At Skift Airline Weekly, we took a hard look at how the first half of this year treated the airline industry in each region of the world. But if we had to pick a region of the world that was the most interesting in the first half of 2019, we'd pick Europe. Why? Several airlines went under, and established players couldn't figure out how to make money on short-haul flights. That's the bad news.
The good news? Strong transatlantic demand to North America and strong trans-Siberian demand to northeast Asia, supporting carriers like IAG, Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, Finnair, Virgin Atlantic, SAS,
