PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

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Hello everyone. We just posted this week’s last 1Q mega-earnings issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

In this week’s jam-packed issue, we have something for everyone. A little AMR, a little Delta, a little United, some more AMR, a little more United, and yes, even a little Republic.

Wrapped around all this are full earnings call reviews of AIr Canada, WestJet, and SkyWest. So yes, you get a lot of Air Canada, WestJet and SkyWest.

In case you haven’t heard, Delta Air Lines and its pilots announced yesterday that the two sides had come to terms on a tentative agreement — seven months in advance of the current contract amendable date.

Bravo.

While we have not seen a copy of the proposed TA yet, we understand that there is one very interesting part of the contract. That part is the one that addresses the flying of the Boeing 717.

Yep, you know where this is going.

In March I broke the story that Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines had come to terms on a deal that would see most, if not all the AirTran 717s go to Delta.

Southwest responded very defensively about the report, although the airline never denied it.

The situation is complicated because of the fact the AirTran 717 pilots who agreed to the contract/seniority agreement with the Southwest pilots and that airline agreed to a deal that saw them more or less given a “carve out” in terms of seniority — as long as Southwest flew the 717.

All I can say is that if there is a part of the Delta pilot contract that directly addresses the 717 flying as I hear is the case — this will be interesting to watch.

In other news, we also have this week’s edition of the AMR Bankruptcy Follies. We have a real mixed bag of news and commentary this week. As most of you know, both the Unsecured Creditors Committee and AMR released statements last Friday which, in essence, allowed that the UCC was going to look at any and every potential deal that might involve American in an effort to maximize creditor and bondholder’s potential return.

American wasn’t too enthusiastic about the decision of the UCC, but they really don’t have any control over the UCC.

We also talk this week about the March DOT Performance numbers. As we had expected, United Airlines took a big hit in terms of on-time performance, lost bags, and complaints. On the flip side, US Airways did very well in March.

Airline stocks also had a good week last week. Shares of United Airlines took top honors. We’ll tell you why.

We also review the recent earnings news from Singapore Airlines, which was surprisingly bad, and IAG, parent of British Airways and Iberia. LAN also reported this last week.

All of this and much, much, more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.