Hello everyone.

This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. Subscribers can access it here.

This week we’re talking in-depth about the recent earnings call from WestJet and Air Canada. Our short and sweet take? WestJet posted a great quarter, and I was glad to hear the airline has deferred six aircraft deliveries. Our biggest beef with the airline over the last year has been its reluctance to cut back on capacity.

As for Air Canada, a funny thing happened during the call. Not once did any member of the airline’s management team ever talk about the airline’s net income for the quarter. Never.

Oh, but they talked about EBITDAR. A lot.

A good-enough quarter for the airline, but the airline’s RASM results disappointed. In addition, looking forward, the airline has a number of cost pressures on the horizon, including the fact that every one of its employee labor contracts come up for renewal in the first part of this year.

This week – Pinnacle Airlines reports on Thursday, with SkyWest and Republic bringing up the rear next week.

We talk about the December DOT Airline Consumer Report this week. JetBlue had a horrible December on-time performance. Hey, if you are based out of JFK, you pay the price when Mother Nature gets cranky.

The drama factor kicked up over at the Allied Pilots Association last week as first the new President of the APA sent out a missive in which he basically said the union has been its own worst enemy. Even though his take was spot-on, we all know what happens to union leaders who dare speak the truth. And, in no short order, various domicile reps began issuing their own take on the situation. Not surprisingly, some of them didn’t exactly share the same sentiment. We’ve got the excerpts.

The FAA recently reported an alarming uptick in the number of “near-misses” year-over-year. Is this really as bad as it seems, or is it just due to changes in the way the FAA is reporting these incidents?

By the way, you remember what the late great George Carlin called a “near miss?” A “near-hit.”

All this and a whole lot more — including which two airline stocks just posted eyebrow-raising increases in the percentage of short interest. Anyone want to take a guess as to which two airlines we are talking about?

Ciao.