Airline News

Starting next month, TSA will limit the number of travelers who receive access to Precheck security lanes without joining the program. But the TSA is being cagey about exactly what this means, so we'll have to wait until February to see how this affects airport lines.

These are the aviation trends we were talking about this week.

Airfares in the U.S. are still near historic average lows, and a transatlantic fare war should last for more than a year. But after a delay, American is copying Delta's playbook. It aims to fix its profit margin problem by coaxing business travelers to pay more on routes worldwide by 2018.

Yet again, Southwest is choosing not to copy United, American and Delta. Its independent strategy has worked well for the last five decades, so why change what works?

JetBlue is a publicly traded corporation, and it has little choice but to reduce capacity when revenues fall because that's what investors expect. But this isn't great for travelers. They would prefer JetBlue discount its fares to to fill seats when demand falls.

A three-month delay isn't that big of a deal, but the timing isn't great for Hawaiian. The airline would have preferred to have some of its new A321neos in service by the fourth quarter, when demand for Hawaiian vacations picks up.

Maybe five years ago, it would have been bad news if an airline decided not to add in-seat screens. But times change, and many passengers prefer to watch content on their own screens. This is not a big deal.

While the first quarter figures point to an airline ticking along nicely, the outlook remains fairly gloomy, especially as no one really knows how big an impact the UK's protracted departure from the European Union will have on the economy.

With basic economy soon available on American, Delta, and United, it's worth comparing the pros and cons of each fare. American's may be good for elite travelers while Delta's is best for those with baggage.

Google is aggressively placing itself more prominently than ever between the consumer and the airline in the quest for bookings. What does it mean? Airlines are getting more qualified leads but are losing control and getting even more beholden to Google.