Airline News

Here's to some of the most innovative and thoughtful brands in travel today. These companies are doing the heavy lifting to make travel and hospitality more inspiring.

This week in aviation, we looked at some old problems and some new ones — for example how to get food onto an airplane and how blockchain can work with reservations systems.

Are you upset some airlines charge $3 for a soda? There's a reason prices are higher than at a convenience store. It's not easy or cheap to get provisions onto an aircraft.

Anyone remember Google Wave? Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, TUI, and a whole bunch of investors and techies are betting that blockchain fulfills a lot of promise and exhibits a ton more staying power than previously-hyped technologies that didn't hang around very long.

Airline food isn't always tasty, but passengers probably shouldn't compare it to what they find in a restaurant. Delivering food to an aircraft is a logistical challenge, and it's amazing the system works as well as it does.

The best CEOs know when it's the right time to quit. Things may look rosy now, but EasyJet could be in for a tough time if the UK's Brexit negotiations go badly.

This is a simple business. If you're an airline, you should send your planes to places where they make money. Delta is doing it right.

This week in aviation, we focused on tech in the cabin. In-flight entertainment systems somehow persist in the age of personal tablets. Meanwhile, United finally commits to speeding up Wi-Fi.

Road warriors have long suspected a systematic Wi-Fi problem on many United planes, but the airline has said little about it. Now, we know more about this issue. The good news? It will be fixed soon, according to United.

Seatback entertainment screens are so 2002. Airlines should remove them and focus on what their highest-value travelers actually want — fast, reliable Wi-Fi. Passengers who care about quality entertainment can load up their own devices with stuff they actually want to watch. Or they can stream from a server on the plane.