American Airlines Boing 777-300 wide-body aircraft as seen on final approach for landing at London Heathrow International airport in England, UK.
Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images
American Airlines posted its first quarterly profit since the pandemic started without government aid but joined competitors in scaling back growth plans after a host of disruptions this year. The carrier on Thursday forecast a third-quarter profit, however, another sign of strong travel demand, even at high prices.
American posted a second-quarter profit of $476 million, up from $19 million a year earlier, though the carrier was still benefitting from federal coronavirus payroll support last year.
Second-quarter revenue of $13.4 billion was up 12% from before the pandemic, even though American flew 8.5% less than the same period of 2019, the airline said.
American has been more aggressive than rivals United Airlines and Delta Air Lines in restoring capacity, but American’s CEO said the carrier would limit its expansion this year.
“As we look to the rest of the year, we have taken proactive steps to build additional buffer into our schedule and will continue to limit capacity to the resources we have and the operating conditions we face,” CEO Robert Isom said in a note to staff.
The airline said it would fly 8% to 10% below 2019 levels in the third quarter but said revenue would be up as much as 12% from three years earlier as high fares continue into the summer.
American shares were down nearly 3% in premarket trading after releasing results.
Here’s how the carrier performed in the second quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations according to Refinitiv consensus estimates:
Adjusted earnings per share: 76 cents versus an expected 76 cents.
Total revenue: $13.42 billion versus expected $13.40 billion.
Unit costs surged 45% in the second quarter from three years earlier as the carrier, like its rivals, faced a jump in fuel and other expenses.
American’s executives will hold a call to discuss results at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday. They are likely to face questions on future travel demand, capacity, its labor talks with its pilots and flight attendant unions, hiring progress and aircraft needs.
United late Wednesday reported its first profit since the pandemic without the help of government aid, but said it would cut its growth plans through 2023.
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(CNN) — This week in travel news, Time Out and TIME have both announced their annual lists of must-visit destinations, while AirlineRatings.com has named the world’s best airlines for 2022.
Destination inspiration
First, Time Out released its 2022 round-up of the world’s best cities. In a Europe-dominated list, Scotland had two cities in the top five. (You can hear what Anthony Bourdain made of the country when he visited in 2015 on the “Parts Unknown” podcast.)
Edinburgh Castle towers above Princes Street Gardens in the top-rated Scottish city.
ChrisHepburn/E+/Getty Images
Then TIME unleashed its list of the world’s 50 greatest places: Japanese islands, a South African wine region and a handful of South American cities were among them.
Other recommendations from us here at CNN Travel include these spots in Europe — where the dollar is strong against the euro — and the Maldives: I mean, just look at these overwater villas.
Extraordinary wonders
Over in the Middle East, the United Arab Emiratesmay be just over 50 years old, but there are millennia of history to explore. Abu Dhabi is home to an array of historic treasures, including the 18th-century Hosn Palaceand the lush man-made splendor of the Al Ain Oasis.
Then there’s Abu Dhabi’s otherworldly fossil dunes: frozen waves of solid sand that have been crafted over tens of thousands of years.
Taste the world
Revered food writer Grace Young is having a moment. She’s just won the Julia Child Award and the 2022 James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award, and she’s deep on a mission to save America’s Chinatowns.
And if Asian food’s your jam, you might also enjoy our story on how “bland” tofu became one of the world’s hottest foods. And if you’re still hungry for more, try this Japanese tea house that lets visitors drink from $25,000 antique bowls.
Be careful out there
It’s wildfire season in California, and firefighters are working hard to protect Yosemite National Park’s giant sequoias — the largest trees on Earth by volume. The Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru were also under threat from wildfire earlier this month.
In Kyrgyzstan, a group of tourists trekking in the Tian Shan mountains were lucky to survive a huge avalanche that swept over them on July 8: Watch here.
And travelers not facing bodily harm may still be looking at massive flight delays and cancellations as airlines and airports scramble to meet summer demand.
Aloha, Hawai’i
In case you missed it
A Middle Eastern airline has been named world’s best for the second year in a row.
A Frontier Airlines plane near a Spirit Airlines plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 16, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Spirit Airlines is again delaying a shareholder vote set for Friday on its deal to merge with Frontier Airlines, a win for competing suitor JetBlue Airways, which wants to buy Spirit outright.
It is the third time Spirit has postponed the vote, which was originally scheduled for June 10. It was later pushed to June 28, but Spirit had delayed it until July 8 last week, a day before the vote.
Spirit said Thursday it would now hold the vote on July 15 so it could continue deal talks with both airlines.
The delays bode well for JetBlue Airways, which swooped in with a $3.6 billion all-cash offer to buy Spirit in April. Two months earlier, Frontier and Spirit announced a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal to combine into a discount behemoth.
“We are encouraged by our discussions with Spirit and are hopeful they now recognize that Spirit shareholders have indicated their clear, overwhelming preference for an agreement with JetBlue,” JetBlue’s CEO Robin Hayes said in a statement after the latest delay.
Spirit’s board repeatedly rejected JetBlue’s offers, including sweetened proposals, arguing it didn’t think regulators would sign off on the deal. JetBlue said both deals would face regulatory scrutiny, and Hayes said that Spirit’s board didn’t give JetBlue’s offers full consideration.
It wasn’t clear if Spirit would have the shareholder support it needed to get the Frontier deal passed ahead of the last scheduled meeting, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Frontier, which also sweetened its offer for Spirit, nearly doubling the cash portion to $4.13 a share, didn’t immediately comment on the latest vote delay.
Spirit shares were up 2% in afterhours trading, while Frontier shares were down less than 1%. JetBlue was little changed.
An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner approaches for a landing at the Miami International Airport on December 10, 2021 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
American Airlines pilots and its pilots’ union agreed to triple pay for aviators who were able to drop thousands of July flights because of a scheduling program glitch over the weekend, they said Wednesday. Pilots will also get double pay for peak holiday periods.
The scheduling platform error let pilots drop some 12,000 flights from their schedules, according to the union, the Allied Pilots Association, CNBC reported last week.
The issue sprung up while American and other airlines have been scrambling to avoid flight disruptions during a surge in summer travel demand.
“We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the APA and appreciate their partnership in coming to a resolution quickly to take care of our pilots, our team and our customers,” American said in a statement.
A similar issue occurred in 2017, when a technology problem let American’s pilots take vacation during the busy December holiday period. The carrier offered pilots 150% pay for pilots who picked up assignments.
American and the pilots union are in contract negotiations. APA’s president, Capt. Ed Sicher, told the union’s roughly 15,000 pilots: “I am optimistic it will provide a springboard for us to wrap up our Section 6 negotiations and secure the new collective bargaining agreement that we have been waiting far too long to achieve.”
American recently offered pilots raises of nearly 17% through 2024.
The Boeing logo is pictured at the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition fair at Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil August 14, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker//
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July 1 (Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Friday “it is disappointing that geopolitical differences continue to constrain U.S. aircraft exports” while responding to China’s three biggest state-owned airlines buying 300 jets from European planemaker Airbus SE (AIR.PA).
The U.S. planemaker added that it continued to urge a productive dialogue between the U.S. and China governments.
(This story was corrected to show Airbus is a European manufacturer, not French.)
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Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Barrett Lane was on his way from Washington, D.C., to one of his college best friend’s wedding in Thousand Oaks, California, when his flight was delayed ahead of July Fourth weekend.
The 34-year-old transportation project manager and his husband had flown into Newark, New Jersey, where they were supposed to change planes, when their United Airlines flight to Los Angeles was pushed back four hours because of a maintenance problem.
Several more delays later, the couple boarded the plane Wednesday night along with other passengers, and sat at the gate for three hours.
The airline eventually let them deplane, and the flight was pushed back until the morning. Hotels were full, so the couple slept on cots on the airport floor.
“I think I maybe slept like an hour total,” Lane told USA TODAY. By the time the flight finally took off the next morning, it had been delayed more than 14 hours.
While Lane’s experience was on the extreme end, flight delays and cancellations have become all too common this summer as air transportation struggles to get back to normal after the pandemic-era slump.
Don’t blame the ones who showed up: Pilot shortage driving airline reliability struggles this summer
Travel credits: Airlines issued billions in credits during the pandemic. Here’s why travelers need to use them ASAP
United gave the couple a total of $60 in food vouchers and $300 in flight credit each, Lane said. A customer service representative also told Lane the airline would refund the miles he used for the flight (his husband booked separately and had not called customer service yet). And while he planned to skip the wedding rehearsal to rest, he is going to try to enjoy the trip and occasion.
“You can talk about your travel drama for a little bit … but the focus is on the bride and the groom and the wedding party,” he said. “So, I’m going to try my best not to be the main character this weekend.”
Demand for flights is up, and airlines are stretched thin trying to get people where they want to go. For travelers, it’s more important than ever to be patient and ready for changes, especially heading into a holiday weekend that’s sure to bring even bigger crowds to the airports.
What’s going on in the airports today?
Around 2 p.m. ET on Friday, more than 300 U.S. flights had been canceled and almost 2,900 more were delayed, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight status in real-time.
Delta Air Lines has the most cancellations of any carrier in the U.S., with about 80 flights axed so far, representing about 2% of the airline’s schedule for today. That number does not including flights operated by Delta’s regional affiliates.
The Federal Aviation Administration warns that today could get more difficult as summer storms threaten to cause problems in large swathes of the country.
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Travelers wait in line at O’Hare International Airport on June 30, 2022, in Chicago.
What’s causing the problems?
In the U.S., the biggest problem this summer has been a shortage of pilots.
Airlines don’t have enough people on staff to fly all the flights they scheduled in many cases, and with rosters stretched thin, it’s taking extra time for carriers to recover when something goes wrong.
Pilot shortage: Airlines struggle with reliability this summer
“We need more pilots to enter into the profession as an industry, as a country, that’s important. And until we address certain things to enable that to happen, this is going to become increasingly acute,” Andrew Levy, CEO of ultra-low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines told USA TODAY. “The result is going to be less air service in this country and people will pay higher fares.”
On top of that, airlines say, the Federal Aviation Administration is struggling with staffing at some of its air traffic control centers, which can lead flight departures to be pushed back until the controllers have the bandwidth to handle more incoming planes.
“The answer of what the next few months are going to look like were answered three months ago in terms of staffing and schedules,” said Courtney Miller, ounder of Visual Approach Analytics.
To that end, airlines including American, Delta, JetBlue and United have all announced varying degrees of schedule cuts through the summer.
Delta Air Lines went as far as issuing a travel waiver letting customers rebook their July Fourth trip without paying change fees or fare differences. The waiver is good through July 8.
Tips for travelers
Joshua Bush, CEO of travel agency Avenue Two Travel, saidtravelers should expect delays and long lines, particularly at security and check-in. But they can take steps to minimize disruptions.
► For those looking at last-minute flights or booking new ones, consider flying nonstop when possible as Bush said it “removes the variables of where things can go wrong,” and flying from a major airport or hub where there are more opportunities for rerouting.
► He also recommended downloading your airline’s app so you will get notifications about changes more quickly, and forgoing checked luggage in favor of carry-ons. Not only does it reduce the chance of your luggage getting lost, Bush said, but you can more easily look into flying standby on another flight.
► If you are at the airport when your flight is canceled, Bush advised travelers to go see the gate agent or customer service as soon as possible, something he acknowledges “is far easier said than done” in busy airports. You can also call by phone, and he said many airline apps have a chat feature.
“You’ve got at least three different options of being able to try to solve the same problem,” he said.
► Travel insurance can be helpful, too. Some insurers offer trip interruption, delay, and cancellation options, and will reimburse passengers whose bags are lost so they can buy clothing, or claim money to pay for a hotel or buy food in the airport.
“Each policy is different, so go ahead and definitely look at them,” he said.
Traveling for July Fourth? Here are 5 things to know before flying, driving this weekend.
Summer travel woes: What airlines owe you when flights are canceled, delayed
While passengers dealing with delays or cancellations are likely to be frustrated, Bush also urged patience when dealing with gate agents or other representatives.
“If they’ve had 100 people scream and yell at them and you’re the one person that’s nice, patient and kind with them, they’re going to try that much harder to get you where you need to go,” he said.
If your flight is canceled and you decide against rebooking, the airline has to refund any unused part of your ticket in cash.
That is true even if your fare is nonrefundable. If you experience a major delay, you may also be entitled to compensation or a refund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fourth of July air travel could be messy this year:
Ahead of the July Fourth weekend, airlines are facing a wave of concern over flight cancellations — and new pressure from Washington to make sure they’re not leaving travelers in the lurch.
Wednesday saw more than 2,000 cancellations in a single day, according to FlightAware data, with uncertainty continuing into the holiday travel season. The surge in canceled flights is particularly bad because it’s happening across all airlines, straining the system’s capacity and leaving many travelers unable to reach their destinations. A Washington Post report on Tuesday detailed the human cost of those cancellations, with travelers sleeping on airport floors or canceling trips altogether.
A deeper look at the data shows cancellations really have increased in recent months, peaking in January with more than 33,000 cancellations in a single month, more than double the equivalent figure from 2019. As holiday travel heats up, many are concerned that the summer’s cancellation numbers will be even higher.
The numbers are still well below the pandemic-driven peak in March and April of 2020, which saw more than 100,000 cancellations per month. But while those cancellations were driven by quarantine rules and a broader falloff in demand, the more recent problems are caused by a shortfall in supply.
Staffing is a particular issue, as airlines struggle to replace the thousands of pilots who took buyouts in 2020 as the industry responded to the pandemic. With those pilots out of the workforce, airlines have had difficulty staffing their planes — and have often had to cancel flights when unable to arrange a crew. As the shortage intensifies, some industry analysts have proposed easing the requirements for pilot certification — including the rule requiring 1,500 hours of flight time before piloting a commercial aircraft.
Politicians have been vocal in demanding fewer cancellations — often while invoking the generous terms of the industry’s $54 billion pandemic bailout.
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman called on the White House to fine airlines $27,500 for every flight that’s canceled due to known staffing shortages. “Government has a responsibility to hold these airlines accountable,” Fetterman said in a statement. “Taxpayers saved them and now it’s their turn to hold up their end of the deal.”
When asked about Fetterman’s proposal, the Department of Transportation pointed to its ongoing enforcement actions to ensure airlines honor their refund policies. “We share the expectation that, when Americans buy an airline ticket, they will get where they need to go safely, affordably, and reliably,” said department spokesperson Benjamin Halle. “We will continue to work with airlines to meet that expectation, but also not hesitate in using enforcement actions to hold them accountable.”
June 27 (Reuters) – Airlines canceled over 700 flights in the United States on Monday, as adverse weather and a shortage of staff hurt their ability to keep up with a surge in summer travel demand.
Total flight cancellations within, into, or out of the United States as of 1.07 p.m. ET were 747, as per flight-tracking website Flightaware.com. Nearly 860 flights were canceled on Sunday.
Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) had over 200 cancellations, Republic Airways Inc and United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL.O) had 196 and 122 flight cancellations, respectively, while American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) canceled 62 flights as of Monday afternoon.
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American Airlines said the cancellations were largely due to weather and air traffic control initiatives designed to regulate traffic.
Delta, United and Republic did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
In Europe, recent airport snarls have been blamed on a shortage of employees, as many workers, who were laid off during the pandemic, desert airport work for flexible working practices and other occupations. read more
Even the U.S. regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces staff shortages.
The FAA last week granted United approval to temporarily cut Newark flights after the Chicago-based carrier petitioned for a waiver, citing airport construction and air traffic control staffing. read more
Airlines for America, a trade group, said on Friday the FAA must ensure adequate air traffic control staffing to avoid further summer travel disruptions. read more
Shares of Delta, United and American Airlines were down 2% to 3% in afternoon trade.
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Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shailesh Kuber
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
If you’ve flown recently, or attempted to, it might have gone something like this: Your 1 p.m. flight became a 5 p.m. flight became a midnight flight before being summarily canceled. No explanation is given. The next flights out are already fully booked, but they have a middle seat with two stopovers leaving next week if that still works for you.
We’ve put up with so much from airlines. Food on airplanes is now limited to crackers and a shot glass of soda. We pay exorbitant amounts to check baggage. Only some people get to bring a carry-on bag on the plane. We pay to choose our seat. A seat, by the way, that is designed for someone who is 4’8” and 95 pounds. They’ve tortured us in a variety of ways.
We dealt with it because they got us from point A to point B swiftly and safely. Sometimes it was even cheaply. We accepted the continued downgrading of service because they had something we wanted that only they could deliver. But airlines are not keeping up their end of the bargain. We’re missing meetings, events, family time and more because they just can’t get their act together.
According to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight cancellations and delays, there were 1,629 delays and 631 cancellations “within, into, or out of the United States” just Sunday. This was only by noon. Cancellations and delays become more likely as the day progresses.
Why are these frequent delays happening? Airlines cite post-pandemic demand being high. That’s probably true, but people are excitedly booking seats on flights that allegedly exist only to have them not exist when it’s time to travel. That’s not the fault of demand.
Airlines continued to demand employees to be vaccinated in order to work.AP/Charlie Neibergall
Airlines have an abundance of other reasons. They blame “understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration.” They point the finger at “weather” or “unscheduled absences among staff.”
Then there’s the pilot shortage. Why would there be a pilot shortage, the average flyer screams into the void. In one of the dumbest moves possible, pilots were encouraged to retire early to avoid being laid off during the pandemic.
But here is exactly where the poor performance of airlines becomes a bigger deal than just a business failing to deliver quality service to the customer. Throughout the last two years, airlines received more than $50 billion in pandemic-relief money. Our money. Congress has tried to demand answers about how that money was spent, but just like all of their other boondoggles, they could not come up with any clear answers.
That money was meant to preserve jobs and save an industry. Pilots, pretty important to the whole flying thing, should never have been encouraged off the job. Instead, the industry is in disarray, staff were laid off anyway and the money is gone.
Some airlines kept demanding their employees get the COVID-19 vaccine well into 2022 despite the employment crisis. Any employee with a vaccine exemption was placed on paid leave, which seems like a poor usage of taxpayer dollars, until the airlines finally relented. Anyone without an exemption was fired. It didn’t make sense, and we are all paying for it now.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had his own flight canceled recently and was forced to drive from Washington to New York. Now he’s saying his department can force the airlines to hire more staff. That might work for some roles, but pilots aren’t, ahem, transportation secretaries. They have to actually have experience and know what they’re doing. Buttigieg had no previous transportation experience before being picked for this role. A pilot can’t exactly similarly fake it until they make it.
Perhaps the real lesson here is the federal government should stop handing out free cash with no strings attached even in times of crisis. Here’s hoping every elected official whose flight is delayed two hours, six hours or eventually canceled remembers they gave this industry the money to treat us like this. And then let’s hope they don’t do it again.
Wild video shows a drunken British vacationer shoving his girlfriend to the floor and slugging a security worker at an airport in England after he was banned from a flight, according to reports.
The viral, 19-second clip captures the moment the would-be EasyJet passenger violently pushed his gal pal down and punched an airline employee after the flier wasn’t allowed on a flight from Bristol Airport to Alicante, Spain, because he was intoxicated, reports said.
The girlfriend is first seen lifting her arms while screaming at an airport employee.
Her unidentified boyfriend then runs at the worker, knocking him to the ground, as onlookers gasped.
Police told BristolLive that the 39-year-old man and 37-year-old woman were arrested for assault.
A rep for the Somerset Police said the incident took place at 9:30 p.m. on June 17.
Witness Steve Rich, 33, told the local outlet, “All of a sudden, the passenger just threw a fist over one of the guy’s shoulders and just caught the security guard on the mouth.”
The girlfriend is first seen lifting her arms while screaming at an airport employee.TwitterHer unidentified boyfriend pushes past her and runs at the worker.TwitterThe man wasn’t allowed on a flight from Bristol Airport to Alicante, Spain, because he was intoxicated.Twitter
Rich of Wiltshire called the incident “unnecessary” and said it caused those who saw it to become upset.
“The two girls who were working at the [gate] were in floods of tears because it’s scary for them,” he said.
“Before the security arrived, you’ve got these two people saying, ‘How are you going to stop us getting through to get on this flight?’ … There were kids everywhere.”
A representative for Bristol Airport told the news outlet, “Anti-social, violent or threatening behavior will not be accepted by Bristol Airport or airlines.
“Whilst such incidents are rare, we take them very seriously and will fully support any police investigation.”
