Hello everyone. This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. It was another travel week for moi, as I talked about all things airline-related last week at the Business Travel News 2014 Trends and Forecasts conference in San Francisco.

This week I travel to Mexico City, where I will moderate a panel at the Travelport Evolve Conference. Yep, you can rest assured that NDCs, GDS offerings, and merchandising platforms will be on the agenda!

This week in PlaneBusiness Banter we are talking about a wide variety of topics. First, I update everyone on the current situation with the American Airlines/US Airways merger. I’ve changed my mind on the chances for a potential settlement. I’ll give you all the details.

In addition, the big news from last week that rocked the aviation world has to be the fact that Airbus has wrestled Boeing out of its cozy situation in Japan. That’s right. Japan Airlines announced an order for Airbus A350s.

This was no small deal. Remember that All Nippon Airways is now in negotiations with both Boeing and Airbus for replacements for its aging 777 fleet. Now — all bets are off. Most watchers of the aircraft side of the business say the ANA deal is now a “must-win” deal for Boeing. 

Airline stocks had a relatively slow week last week, but two airline stocks posted nice double-digit gains — AIr Canada and Spirit. Do you know why? We’ll tell you.

We also review both the September RASM estimates and traffic numbers in this week’s issue. Short and sweet? September turned into a dynamite month revenue wise for the U.S. airline group — with one big exception. United Airlines. 

United had already pre-warned about lower than expected  3Q13 revenue performance. This was just the icing on an already somewhat less-than-tasty cake.

We also talk a lot this week about the problem of onboard Wi-Fi. It’s great. When it works. And for god’s sake, don’t make it free. There is not enough capacity and then it doesn’t work for anybody.

That’s a very short version of our discussion.

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