United Breaks Records, American Tried Very Hard – Cranky Flier

United’s Q4 Breaks Records

United’s crowed announced its Q4 and year-end earnings this week, and it was a very profitable time for the airline. For the full year, United ended up with a profit of more than $5 billion while flying nearly 174 million customers, a new company record. Of those 174 million, those that did not have to change planes in Newark were generally happy with their experience, while the others vowed to never fly United or step foot in North Jersey ever again. Overall, it was a new high of $57 billion in revenue for the year, a 6% jump from ’23.

For the year’s final three months, United set a company record with $14.7 billion in revenue, a nearly 8% jump from a year ago, as it turned a $1 billion profit for Q4, enough potentially open a United Club in Ulaanbaatar ahead of service starting at the airport later this year.

Looking ahead to 2025, UA expects its most profitable year ever, as its path to 10% pre-tax margin remains on target after climbing that figure to 8.9% in ’24. The carrier also spent a hefty penny on a new set of darts that it will use to throw at a map of Asia later this year to see what new routes it will add to join its burgeoning hub in Tokyo.

AA’s 2024 Earnings Less AAmazing than United

American posted gross revenues of $54.2 billion this year, an almost 3% bump from 2023 — that’s the good news. Its profit on that revenue was just $2.6 billion, a 14% drop from last year. PRASM also dropped for American, down 3.1% to 16.93 cents, while its CASM dropped just 1.7% to 17.61 cents.

AA’s expectations for Q1 this year are less than stellar as it is bracing for a loss of $0.20-$0.40 per share, a larger dip than investors first believed. Unit costs, with the exception of fuel are expected to rise during the first three months of 2025 on the heels of lower operating capacity. American’s stock tumbled Thursday morning on this news, but rebounded somewhat when investors realized American wasn’t the one that made you change planes in Newark.

CEO Robert Isom spun the news to focus on what AA did accomplish during 2024 saying:

The American Airlines team achieved a number of important objectives in 2024. We continue to run a reliable operation, and we are reengineering the business to build an even more efficient airline.

The airline does expect revenue to jump as much as 3-5% in Q1 and 7.5% for the entire year as it looks to rebound.

Southwest Makes Pilot Cuts in Atlanta and Denver

Southwest Airlines is cutting about 270 pilot positions between its operations in both Atlanta and Denver, with about 155 reductions in Denver and 115 in Atlanta. The 115 cuts in Atlanta are less than the 140 it predicted last year when announcing a reduction in service at the airport. To lessen the pain, those impacted by the cuts in Atlanta who don’t want to transfer will be permitted to camp at the end of the C gates with unlimited access to Delta’s Biscoff tunnel for a period of six months.

Denver’s flight schedule is not being reduced by Southwest — for now — but the carrier plans to keep fewer aircraft parked overnight in Denver leading to a reduction in morning departures.

All pilots affected by the changes are being offered the option to transfer bases — no one is being laid off during this round of adjustments.

Delta to Resume Israel Flying

Delta Air Lines became the first U.S-based carrier to announce a return to Israel as it shared it will resume flying daily service to Tel Aviv on April 1. Delta’s flights from its New York/JFK hub will resume after it first suspended flights in October 2023 before resuming last summer for less than two months.

The flight will operate with an A330-900neo.

Delta’s current plans include having its staff and crew overnight in Tel Aviv during layovers and it says its taking additional precautions for its staff’s safety both during flight and on their layovers before returning home.

American says its suspension of flights into Israel will continue into at least September while United says it will keep service suspended until it is safe to do so. Meanwhile, an El Al spokesperson was quoted as saying “it’s definitely not safe. You should not fly here. We hate making money hand over fist.”

Just Venmo Me: JetBlue Opens New Payment Option

JetBlue is adding Venmo as a payment option when purchasing airfare giving customers the opportunity to spread the cost of their trip with all of their friends through emoji-fueled payment requests between friend groups. Venmo is available now on JetBlue’s website and is will be available on its app in the coming months.

The airline is using the often-ignored tactic of finding ways to make it easier for people to send them their money, something other airlines and businesses often struggle with. Customers can use their stored balance in Venmo (although leaving a cash balance in Venmo is never a good idea…send it to your bank, people), or any linked payment methods in their account.

• Air Algérie cancelled an order for two A350-1000s and replaced it with an order for three A330-900s.
• Air Astana is finally going to provide the air link between Almaty and Guangzhou that we’ve all been waiting for.
• Air Montenegro is adding capacity.
• Air Sanga, the preferred carrier for all Papua New Guinea domestic operations of the Cranky Weekly Review, is ending Twin Otter operations to the chagrin of us all.
• Alaska‘s year-end earnings showed that it eked out a $395 million profit on almost $12 billion in revenue, plus it acquired vats and vats of POG juice.
• Asiana has a new CEO who’s job seemingly is to lock up and turn off the lights.
• Breeze made a profit during Q4, a first for the company.
• Emirates will resume daily service to both Beirut and Baghdad on April 1.
• Eurowings is adding 40 B737-8s.
• Frontier aircraft N720FR which features Crockett the Raccoon won’t be flying to any new frontiers anytime soon.
• Gol will resume flying to Venezuela on March 31 with 2x weekly flights to Caracas from Brasilia with a stopover in Bogotá.
• ITA is resuming service to Israel — BA too.
• JAL will resume flying between Tokyo/NRT and Chicago on May 31.
• Lufthansa will fly its A380s to Denver. But it’s not making a profit…yet.
• Pakistan International Airlines pilots are back at it, this time landing on a closed runway.
• PLAY has had enough of Canada.
• Qantas is adding Sapporo, Japan to its route map.
• Qatar is adding service to Bogotá and Caracas.
• Riyadh Air is now targeting Q3 2025 to launch.
• SAS and Air Europa will begin codesharing.
• SkyTeam is updating lounge access to include Elite Plus members traveling on domestic flights — except for Delta SkyClubs, of course.
• Silver is ending its service to Anguilla.
• Southwest is the latest carrier to be targeted by a suit from the DOT for operating tardy flights.
• Spirit has secured funding to exit Chapter 11 to the tune of about $300 million.