The agreement-in-principle will be put forward for a vote by the 11,000-plus members of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA). Balloting will last until Jan. 22.  

The agreement, which would last through December 2028, stipulates an immediate 29% pay raise and a pay rate increase of 50% over the life of the deal.

“The deal also includes improvements to work rules and flying schedules, better disability coverage, and increases to retirement benefits,” the union said in a press release. 

If Southwest pilots approve the agreement, it will end years of negotiations on a contract that first became amendable in September 2020. 

The past year has brought new pilot labor agreements at American, Delta, United and other carriers, with raises well in excess of 40%.

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The order will augment and modernize Turkish’s existing fleet of 435 mainline and regional aircraft and help it push toward a goal of more than doubling its passenger capacity over the next 10 years as it brings its fleet size to more than 800. 

“The addition of these Airbus aircraft will further enhance the airline’s ability to connect Türkiye to the farthest corners of the globe, offering its passengers even more destinations and travel options,” the carrier said in a Monday announcement. 

The firm order includes 150 Airbus A321neos, which is Airbus’ largest narrowbody plane. It also includes 80 widebody aircraft, divided between 60 A350-900s, 15 of the larger A350-1000s and five A350F cargo jets. 

Turkish has secured purchase rights for an additional 100 A321neos, 20 A350-900s and five A350Fs. 

Turkish, a Star Alliance member, currently has a network of 344 destinations in 129 countries, the carrier said in a presentation to investors last month. Its goal is to fly to more than 90% of what it calls global megacities by 2033. 

Current Turkish destinations in the U.S. are Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago O’Hare, Detroit, Boston, Newark, New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Atlanta and Miami. 

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Initially, the agreement will apply to bookings that combine Porter flights from Toronto Pearson to Los Angeles and San Francisco with Alaska flights to 18 destinations across the west. Connections from Canadian airports are expected to be added into the partnership early in 2024, Porter said.

The agreement also includes a mileage partnership. Alaska Mileage Plan members will now earn frequent flyer miles and elite qualifying miles at 100% of the Alaska rate when booking Porter flights on the Alaska website. The mileage partnership will be extended next year, with both Mileage Plan and VIPorter members able to earn miles no matter where a flight is booked. The partners also will have reciprocal mileage redemption. 

Porter is expanding, with plans to grow its fleet from approximately 50 to 79 aircraft by 2025. Especially significant is that Porter has been augmenting its fleet of 78-seat Bombardier Q400 propeller planes with 132-seat Embraer E195 E2 aircraft. Porter has thus far taken delivery of 24 E195s and has 51 more on firm order. E195s have a range of approximately 3,000 miles, more than twice the range of the Q400.

On its E195 routes, Porter is operating out of Toronto Pearson, the city’s primary airport, instead of Toronto’s smaller but more centrally located Billy Bishop Airport, which the carrier continues to use for Q400 operations. 

Buoyed by its larger and longer-range jets, Porter has launched seven daily seasonal U.S. routes since November. Those include Ottawa service to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and Toronto Pearson to Orlando, Miami, Fort Myers, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.  

Porter’s daily, year-round flights from Toronto to Los Angeles and San Francisco are scheduled to begin Jan. 16 and Jan. 25, respectively. Porter is also scheduled to launch daily Toronto-Las Vegas service on March 5. 

In late November, Porter announced plans to establish a joint venture with fellow Canadian carrier Air Transaat, combining Air Transaat’s transatlantic, Caribbean and South American networks with Porter’s domestic and U.S.-Canada networks.

Porter Airlines is Alaska’s 30th airline partner.

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To kickstart the strategy, Delta will begin serving the Texas markets of Midland-Odessa and McAllen on April 22, launching thrice-daily service from Austin to both airports. 

The move is intended to enhance Delta’s position in Texas, where it lacks a hub or major focus airport, unlike competitors American, United and Southwest.

Delta said that the two new nonstops within Texas, coupled with continued Mexico City-Austin and Amsterdam-Austin service by Delta joint venture partners Aeromexico and KLM respectively, will position the airline for the first time to use Austin as a connecting base. 

Delta will further build Austin on April 22 with the launch of thrice-daily service to Nashville. In addition, the carrier will increase Austin-Cincinnati from daily to twice daily and increase Raleigh-Durham service from twice daily to thrice daily. 

“Austin is growing rapidly, and this 20% increase in capacity mirrors that growth as we look to provide our customers with unparalleled convenience in the region,” said Delta senior vice president of network planning Joe Esposito. 

Delta currently flies to 12 destinations from Austin, making it the third-largest airline in the market in terms of monthly seats, behind Southwest and American. 

American, however, will draw down its Austin presence early next year, reducing its route count from 37 this month to 19 by April, Cirium flight schedule data shows.

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Initially, Lufthansa Group airlines will fly a combined 20 weekly frequencies (approximately 30% of their normal flight schedule) to and from Tel Aviv, split between Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss. 

Lufthansa Airlines will resume Israel service with four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three from Munich. Austrian will operate eight weekly flights from Vienna. Swiss will serve Tel Aviv five times per week from Zurich.

Bookings will open on Dec. 18.  

“Safety is always a top priority for the airlines in the Lufthansa Group,” the company said in a Friday announcement. “The Lufthansa Group continues to monitor the security situation in Israel closely and is in close contact with the local and international authorities. Possible flight schedule adjustments must be expected due to changing conditions.”

Lufthansa Group did not indicate the level of demand for traveling to Israel while the country is at war. It did say  that its Tel Aviv schedule will offer convenient transfers to North America flights.

U.S. carriers American, Delta and United also suspended Tel Aviv service at the start of the war. Currently, El Al, with routes to five U.S. cities, is the only carrier flying nonstop between Israel and the U.S.  

In October, Democrats in Congress asked the U.S. airlines to resume Israel service.

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A4A expects the primary holiday surge to extend from Dec. 20 through Jan. 2. 

Last holiday season was marred by an unprecedented collapse by Southwest Airlines, which canceled 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31 after flights were initially disrupted by a massive winter storm system. 

Southwest says it’s now more resilient, buoyed by investments in scheduling and crew assignment technology as well as by increased de-icing capacity and employee redundancy at key airports that deal with snow and ice.

A4A says that airlines more generally have prepared for this year’s holiday season by building industry staffing to the highest level in more than 20 years, investing in technology and adjusting schedules to prioritize operational performance. 

• Related: U.S. airlines manage busy Thanksgiving holiday without disruption

So far this year, U.S. airlines have cancelled 1.3% of scheduled flights, according to FlightAware, and 20.9% of flights have arrived at least 15 minutes behind schedule. 

For the same timeframe last year, U.S. carriers cancelled 2.2% of flights, while 20% were at least 15 minutes late.

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Current PerksPlus member companies that prefer to book directly with United won’t be left in the lurch. Those small and midsized business will transition to the United for Business portal. 

Earn rates and redemption benefits for each category of United’s two programs for unmanaged business travel will remain the same, said Adam Keeter, director of United for Business Products & Partners.

He explained that United is making the change so that current PerksPlus member companies that do their bookings on the United website or app can take advantage of the increasing capabilities offered by United for Business, which the airline launched late last year. Among its features, United for Business enables travel administrators to choose among three discount travel plans, view reports on travel activity and set booking and payment preferences.

“As more features have been rolled out this year, we’re moving small and midsized enterprises that already use United channels for their PerksPlus travel to the new portal to deliver more functionality and a better customer experience,” Keeter said. 

The PerksPlus program is open to companies that spend more than $5,000 annually on business travel on United or its international joint venture partners. PerksPlus fliers accrue points that can be redeemed for items such as travel certificates, MileagePlus Premier status and United Club access.

United’s decision to leave the PerksPlus program unchanged for companies that book through a travel agency contrasts with a recent move by American Airlines. 

In October, American announced it would phase out the Business Extra rewards program for small and midsize businesses and replace it with AAdvantage Business, a new program that only rewards companies that book directly. 

In a memo to PerksPlus members on Dec. 7, United said that it recognizes the value that many customers place on agencies.

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IATA is also projecting net airline profits next year of $25.7 billion, driven by record revenue of $964 billion. 

Still, IATA director Willie Walsh cautioned that the industry’s net margin is expected to be an all-too modest 2.7%, which is lower than what investors in most other industries would tolerate.

“There is something to be learned from the fact that, on average, airlines will retain just $5.45 for every passenger carried,” Walsh said. “That’s about enough to buy a basic grande latte at a London Starbucks. But it is far too little to build a future that is resilient to shocks for a critical global industry on which 3.5% of GDP depends and from which 3.05 million people directly earn their livelihoods.”

Among the globe’s regions, North America is projected to continue to lead the way next year, recording net profits of $14.4 billion. 

IATA also updated its projection Wednesday for full-year 2023 profits. 

Globally, the trade group now expects net airline profits of $23.3 billion and a net profit margin of 2.6% this year. Those figures are higher than IATA’s forecast from June of a $9.8 billion industrywide net profit and a net profit margin of 1.2%. 

North American airlines will record net profits of $14.3 billion this year, according to the forecast, up from the previous projection of $11.5 billion.

Amex GBT expects flat growth in fares 

As IATA offered its happy forecast for airlines Wednesday, travel management company American Express GBT offered some good news for flyers. Ticket prices should be flat next year, said Amex GBT, with an economy fare increase on North America domestic flights of 0.3% and a premium fare increase of 0.8%.

From North America points of sale, economy tickets will be down 3.5% on flights to Europe, down 7.5% on flights to Asia and down 7.8% on flights to Central America. Economy airfare to South America will be up by a projected 1.3%.

Premium fares will be up 3% on Europe travel and up 0.1% on South America flights, Amex GBT predicted. Premium fares are expected to drop 3% for flights to Asia and 5.7% to Central America.

The forecast is based upon a predictive model that factors in airline capacity data from Cirium, IATA passenger data, inflation and GDP forecasts from the International Monetary Fund and Amex GBT’s own air travel and booking data.

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The route will be Delta’s first from the U.S. to the Taiwan capital. Delta last served Taipei from Tokyo Narita in 2017. 

Related: 

Taiwanese carrier Starlux schedules first U.S. service

Air Tahiti Nui launches Seattle-Paris service

American Airlines quits Seattle-London route

Delta will fly Seattle-Taipei with an Airbus A330-900neo equipped with Delta One business class, a premium economy cabin and a main cabin divided between Comfort+ extra legroom seats and standard economy seats. 

It will compete on the route against daily service by Taiwan-based Star Alliance member Eva Airways. 

Taipei will be Delta’s fourth Asian destination from Seattle, joining Tokyo Haneda, Shanghai and Seoul, South Korea.

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JetBlue’s inaugural flight between JFK and Belize City, operated with an Airbus A320, departed Wednesday. The carrier is flying the route three times per week. 

Belize is JetBlue’s 26th destination in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Though no other airline serves Belize from JFK, JetBlue will compete against longstanding United flights between Newark and Belize. United flies the route twice weekly during the winter and weekly during the summer, with a pause during September and October, Cirium flight schedule data shows.

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