Recently in Airlines Category

The Indian airline industry received yet another blow September 8, when about 360 Jet Airways pilots went on an illegal strike in Mumbai to protest the dismissal of two union employees in August.

It might be ok for the Indian government to bail out loss-ridden national carrier Air India, but it is preposterous that private airlines in which the government has no stake should scream "me too."

India's airline industry has totted up losses of about $2 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2009 of which Air India accounts for more than half. Of course, private airlines account for the rest of the losses.

In a quietly released, densely worded statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Air China took a brave step late Friday night and warned its shareholders that it was sitting on a paper loss of almost half a billion dollars because oil prices are falling dramatically. Anyone holding shares in companies like these is entitled to ask: what is going on here? After years of pain from high oil prices, the balance sheets of these kinds of companies should be getting better now that oil has fallen by 65%. But they are not, and in some cases they are only going to go disastrously wrong from here.

Airlines around the world posted a miserable set of financial results this week, and most inserted carefully-worded, creative language to explain to their shareholders why they are spending so much on jet fuel, and to prepare them for more fuel misery to come.

As we head into the middle of financial reporting season, it is once again "open season" on the world's airlines for equity analysts who are getting ready to take pot shots at flight operators for how they hedge their jet fuel.