Friday Flyer – June 9th, 2023

Here are some stories from around the airline industry this week.

Links

  • The next generation of aircraft is a hot topic these days as we’re hearing a lot about electric powered airplanes and supersonic planes.  Boeing shared a bit about what they’re planning for the future.  (h/t: Jorge Q.)
  • This week was the IATA Airline General Meeting where airline executives (and vendors) from around the world gather to discuss the state of the industry.  There were a lot of really good discussions that seemed to have come from the meetings.  In parallel to the meeting, IATA published their global airline profitability outlook.  The data is really interesting and worth a look to understand post-covid recovery.
  • There were many presentations at AGM, but the United CEO’s on recovery was interesting.  He coined a new phrase: Business Recession.  It seems he’s talking about the situation we’re in where leisure demand remains quite strong, far ahead of pre-covid, but business demand still isn’t coming back like it was before.  This article summarizes it. 
  • Ryanair is never shy about their approach for charging a small fare for the right to fly but then charging you for everything else.  Some in Spain seem to think it has gone too far when they were trying to charge a steep fee for the privilege of bringing pastries onboard. 
  • The air quality in the Midwest and Northeast US has been a big topic this week for a variety of reasons.  It had a big impact on aviation as flights were grounded for a while on Wednesday in New York.  The pictures at the airport were incredible.

Interesting Aviation Fact

Speaking of visibility issues from the smoke, I thought it would be timely to share an article about the impact to low visibility on airline operations.  It turns out, airplanes are pretty good at taking off and landing with very little visual cues.  The more dangerous part comes on the ground.

Cool Aviation Photos

Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s newest airline, released their livery this week.  It’s definitely some bold colors and makes a statement for the airline.  This plane getting the first paint job is a Boeing 787-9.