Hello there Earthlings. This week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. I’m going to be rather brief this evening, as frankly, I’m pretty darn tired. It’s been a long day!

This week we began to get more feedback from the analyst community on just how 2Q13 results are shaping up. United Airlines issued updated guidance last week – the airline now could post lower margins for 2Q13 than it did a year ago. Not quite what a lot of people were expecting.

Southwest’s goal of reaching a 15% ROIC in 2013? Probably not going to happen.

US Airways, meanwhile, looks poised to post the best operating margin of the big four U.S. carriers for 2Q13.

Traffic and PRASM estimates (at least from those airlines that disclose them) continue to roll in this week and next.

Before you know it, it will be time for earnings calls once again.

In terms of second quarter stock performance, the sector did not post quite as strong a quarter as it did for the first quarter.

But it was still an acceptable quarter.

We go over which airlines fared the best and which ones tanked for both 2Q13 and for the last week.

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