Airline News

Airlines have cut many of the perks of the frequent flier game, but for knowledgable travelers, many opportunities remain to beat the system.

Airlines like to strike a delicate balance with on-time performance. They want to be reliable, but they don't necessarily want sky-high on-time rates. An always-punctual operation is expensive.

This letter should get Sens. Markey and Blumenthal some attention. But beyond that, it is not likely to have much of an influence on the nation's airlines.

Many airlines spin new products as industry-leading. But this is the real deal. Delta's new suite looks about as good as business class can get.

Even as airlines work to streamline the airport journey, provide more personalized offers, and deliver memorable in-flight experiences, there's still room for major improvement on the most important part of the airline customer experience – getting passengers to their destination on time.

Southwest has made money for more than 40 years. But that consistency does not satisfy many Wall Street analysts, who keep pushing the airline to increase profits.

U.S. News & World Report's rankings have always skewed more toward leisure travelers than road warriors, but this year's lists show a growing difference between brands that choose to appeal to the majority of consumers versus those who choose to reward frequent business travelers or big spenders.

Few airlines focus as much on passenger experience as Virgin Australia. But unfortunately for investors, that approach has not produced recent profits.

With American Airlines capitulating, in-flight entertainment on all three legacy carriers is now completely free. The next phase of competition will likely revolve around the quality of that content with each airline trying to out-do the other.

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