United Airlines News

American, United, and Delta are all introducing no-frills fares to try to thwart Frontier, Allegiant, and Spirit. It might work, or it might not. But it's worth a shot. The Big 3 do not want any of the discount airlines to grow to be as large and powerful as Ryanair.

It's a short reprieve, but this is good news for travelers. For the next couple of months, they can buy the cheapest tickets on American and United and still get all the perks that the airlines offer to customers who buy pricier tickets.

United's new international flights, especially those to secondary cities in China, could be massively profitable some day. But it generally takes long-haul flights some time to ramp up. It makes sense that United will now place more emphasis on its domestic network.

Give credit to United CEO Oscar Munoz for reaching new labor deals with many of United's employee groups. But buying labor peace is expensive. And now United's new executive team needs to come up with some creative ways to offset the increased costs.

United pushed the launch of its basic economy fares out a few months, giving business travelers a few more months to enjoy the full perks of budget tickets. Slowly, however, the axeman cometh.

Given how many changes United has made at the top recently, it makes sense that airline may want to delay this new fare class. The new executive team probably wants to get it right.

On short-haul flights, airlines have just about levied all the fees they can. But fees are just starting to creep in on long-haul flights. Expect that trend to continue in the next few years.

Airlines prefer not to take risks with most of their senior hires, which makes sense, because the industry is more complicated than most.

Munoz still has the goodwill of industry observers, but he's going to need to make an impact on consumer-friendly metrics like on-time arrivals as well as market-friendly ones like earnings to turn the goodwill into longer-term success.

Scott Kirby, known for his strong financial acumen, could be the savior United's investors have been seeking.