Spirit Airlines Makes a Turnaround and 7 Other Aviation Trends This Week

Spirit Airlines Gets Boost From Dynamic Pricing on Carry-Ons to Bottled Water: Almost everything is improving at Spirit Airlines. Its on-time performance is getting better, and customer satisfaction is rising, according to the airline. More importantly for investors, ancillary revenue is up. Can the good times last?

Is Southwest’s New Credit Card Companion Pass Offer Too Good to Be True? New customers who apply for the Southwest credit card by Monday, February 11, and meet minimum spending requirements will earn one of the airline’s companion passes for the rest of the year. The deals sounds too good to be true. But Southwest knows what it’s doing. This is probably smart business.

American Airlines Warns One of Its Regional Airlines to Improve: U.S. regional airline Mesa Air Group has a relentless focus on costs. But with major carriers trying to increase their customer satisfaction scores, Mesa will need to raise its reliability to win and retain business.

Virgin Australia Appoints Tourism Veteran as New CEO: All eyes are on Virgin Australia’s new CEO, Paul Scurrah, to see if he can stem the losses and lead the airline into profitability. Scurrah inherits a very different airline from the one John Borghetti joined eight years ago, but shareholders are keen to see profits and a return on their investment.

The Secret to 72 Years of Profit at South Africa’s Comair: Do airlines need non-airline businesses to survive? If one company’s unbroken 72-year run of profits is anything to go by, the answer is a resounding yes.

Another European Airline Bites the Dust: Germania certainly won’t be the last European airline to go under this year. 2019 looks like being as challenging as 2018 – even with fuel at a much more favorable price.

Ryanair Reorganizes Exec Team as It Falls to Loss: If it’s tough for Ryanair, you can imagine how difficult it is for other smaller airlines. With a new group structure, it will be interesting to see how big a part the Irish carrier plays in any consolidation over the course of 2019.

Oneworld Stays Cool on China Southern Joining Alliance: Oneworld executives don’t seem too keen on China Southern joining the alliance any time soon, but as an alternative, the Chinese carrier may be able to join as a Connect partner. For Oneworld passengers, that will at least extend loyalty benefits to connecting flights.