Airline News

Casual travelers often think airlines in the same alliance love to cooperate with each other. That's not always true. They're often fierce competitors. At least SkyTeam has developed new technology that is designed to make it easier for airlines to rebook customers during irregular operations.

Something seems off about this. Yes, Gogo CEO Michael Small probably had to go. But shouldn't the company have chosen a new CEO with a background in telecommunications?

Will blockchain's impact be like the internet's influence on travel? JetBlue Technology Ventures President Bonny Simi thinks so.

This week in aviation, big players were fighting. Ryanair filed a lawsuit against Expedia over screen-scraping, and American is challenging Chicago O'Hare over its deal with United.

Airlines have long hoped for a technological development that would enable them to take back control from travel's middlemen. The New Distribution Capability was supposed to be that solution, but change of this magnitude takes time. At the moment, the British Airways parent seems more than happy to eat up the cost.

IATA, a global airline industry trade group, would prefer politicians and regulators not meddle too much with the commercial decisions of airlines. That's a fine position, but perhaps a certain amount of regulation is OK. Consumers should be protected.

Isn't corporate posturing fun? American won't sign its Chicago lease because it fears United is getting a better deal. Since we're pretty sure American won't close its Chicago hub, we're betting this gets resolved. But how?

Brisbane-based Alliance Airlines continues to see opportunities where others fear to fly. It has done extremely well in Australia’s mining boom, and now aims to grow its tourism activities to shield it from the ups and downs of the resources sector.

Ryanair says it gets 99 percent of its bookings from its website in a distribution model that has some parallels to how Southwest Airlines does business. Expedia doesn't offer Southwest's flights to consumers, but apparently thinks it can get away with scraping the website of a foreign airline, Ryanair.com.

We're having a moment. In the wake of the Florida school shooting, travel companies are abandoning the National Rifle Association and its assault rifle advocacy. History would tell us that no substantial reforms will come out of this. But perhaps student and corporate pressure will make things different this time.