American Airlines News

Admire the simplicity of United Airlines’ plan to rebuild its route network for businesses — but question its accuracy.

Just wear a mask on an airplane. It's not that hard, and it keeps everyone safer.

Airlines are highly competitive businesses. Usually, the routes announced Thursday would engender a massive competitive response. But is there an appetite for that now? Hard to say.

Covid-19 will change the flying experience for a long time, as people take precautions to avoid getting sick. But it'll also change flying for another reason. Airlines are taking on considerable debt, and they'll need to cut costs as they try to repay it, at least until revenues improve.

American and United are taking different approaches in the Covid-19 recovery. Each has valid reasons for their strategies, which seem rooted in how they view the U.S. market's potential.

U.S airlines are selling a lot of flights they have no intention of operating. Consumers should beware.

How do you define recovery? If you call it improvement from the nadir, U.S. airlines are in recovery mode. But if recovery means nearing 2019 levels of travel demand, U.S. airlines are a long way away.

Loyalty programs are huge businesses for airlines. The American Airlines program, for example, is worth an estimated $30 to $35 billion. At those kinds of valuations, airlines cannot let their schemes atrophy. They need to keep them relevant.

To keep cash coming in, American Airlines needs passengers to buy tickets for late this year and early next. But there's a problem. American doesn't know what flights it will fly that far in advance.

Any future messaging will need to deliver on the promises, otherwise airlines risk losing loyalty in the long term.