Madhu Unnikrishnan

Madhu is the San Francisco-based editor of Skift Airline Weekly. He previously covered airlines for Aviation Week & Space Technology and Aviation Daily, and he worked in corporate communications for two airlines. He loves typewriters and fountain pens, bicycles, and running trails.

Latest Stories

Airlines

The Biggest Airline Innovation of This Century

Airlines have innovated a lot since Skift Airline Weekly's launch in June 2004, but there's one innovation that we think radically changed the industry.

Madhu Unnikrishnan, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

The Worst Airline Prediction of the Past 15 Years

Skift Airline Weekly celebrates its 15th anniversary this month, and we're taking a look back at some of our highlights. We learned in 2008 the danger of making airline predictions, especially when an airline has its government's support.

Jay Shabat, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

Celebrating 15 Years of Skift Airline Weekly Making an Impact

The airline and media worlds have changed remarkably since Skift Airline Weekly published its first issue in 2004. Here we take a look at how we started and what the future might hold.

Madhu Unnikrishnan and Jay Shabat, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

The Most Amazing Airline Failures of the Past 15 Years

The airline industry is a tough business. Dozens of carriers have gone belly-up since Skift Airline Weekly began publishing in 2004. We picked 10 of the most interesting bankruptcy and grounding stories in the last 15 years.

Madhu Unnikrishnan, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

Singapore Airlines CEO Lays Out Challenges Without Any Domestic Routes

In a rare appearance at Skift Forum Asia, Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong says the carrier is in a unique position: It doesn't operate a single domestic route. So it has to make up for the valuable revenue stream it lacks from domestic traffic feed by competing aggressively in a fragmented market.

Elizabeth Osder, Skift | 4 years ago

Hotels

Fosun Exec Does Not Rule Out Buying Thomas Cook

Fosun says a major path to its future is through acquisitions. But Qian Jiannong wouldn't tip his hand on Thomas Cook. It sure feels like a bigger deal is in the works.

Tom Lowry, Skift | 4 years ago

Business Travel

Plastics Are the ‘Scourge of the Earth’: The Travel Corporation CEO

Travel executives sure like to talk the talk when it comes to eliminating plastics. TTC CEO Brett Tollman aims to be more than a talker.

Madhu Unnikrishnan, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

U.S. Major Airlines Restart Fight Over Open Skies

A long-simmering fight over Open Skies is boiling over again and is dividing the U.S. airline industry. The U.S. major carriers say Air Italy is a Trojan horse for Qatar Airways to expand in the U.S. JetBlue and the cargo carriers argue changing the rules of the game now would invite retaliation.

Madhu Unnikrishnan, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

Low-Cost Airline Startup Sees Promise in Smaller Airports

Allegiant co-founder Andrew Levy is starting a new ultra-low-cost airline and plans to start operations from lower-cost secondary airports. But is there room for another new low-cost airline in the U.S., and will passengers opt to fly from smaller airports?

Jay Shabat, Skift | 4 years ago

Airlines

The Ethiopian Boeing 737 Max Crash Leads to One of the Strangest Weeks Ever in Aviation

The worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max fleet “out of an abundance of caution” is a break with the FAA’s traditional data-driven approach to accident investigations. Could this mean an end to the way safety decisions have been made?

Madhu Unnikrishnan, Skift | 4 years ago