Jay Shabat

With most of the key results in, we've a good idea of how the world's airlines performed in Q4 2024. Not everyone was a winner, but there was plenty to cheer about.

British Airways earned a $2.6 billion operating profit in 2024. Its rival Lufthansa lost almost $100 million. In this week's feature story we find out what's going so right at BA.

When the North Atlantic market is good, British Airways performs strongly. BA's spectacular numbers suggest something is going very right.

Ready for a shakeup? India’s international airline markets are about to change, big time. India’s own airlines want a bigger piece of the pie. Foreign carriers see the pie getting larger. Even distant low-cost carriers like Wizz Air want a taste. In this week's feature story, we examine who will be the likely winners and losers.

Gordon Smith and Jay Shabat set the scene for the upcoming Skift India Forum and preview the big topics ahead of interviews with the CEOs of Air India and IndiGo.

For an airline, the closest thing to happiness is cheap fuel. No wonder so many American carriers are smiling. During the final quarter of 2024, U.S. airlines enjoyed a roughly 20% drop in jet fuel prices.

Southwest just had its first round of compulsory layoffs in its history. What does that mean for the low-cost pioneer and the industry as a whole?

Should Finnair hire a party planner, or a funeral director? No, it’s not in danger of dying. But after a surprisingly strong showing in 2023 and 2024, 2025 is looking uncomfortably fraught with peril. Labor unrest. Ballooning costs. A once-prized Asian network still disrupted. It’s enough to make any airline nervous, let alone a smallish government-owned carrier that lacks scale. In this week's edition, we ask if Finnair can defy the odds again.

After a sensational run of impressive profits in the 2010s, what can Japan Airlines do to restore its weakened commercial cut-through?

Down. Down. Down. In 2024, Japan Airlines saw its annual profit margins drop again. Putting aside the pandemic-blemished period, JAL’s profitability declined for a sixth consecutive year. Last week, it posted a 7% operating margin for calendar year 2024. Not just down versus 2023, but a far cry from its 15% heyday. What’s happening? In this week's feature story we ask if the double-digit margins are gone forever and if JAL can turn things around.