This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. This week we take an in-depth look at the recent earnings reported by Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and Alaska Air Group. We also have summarized takes at Ryanair, IAG, and Lufthansa. Finally, we have earnings summaries posted for Spirit and WestJet this week.

A bit of comment on the foreign flyers in the group – IAG, parent of British Airways, Vueling and Iberia, clearly took the top spot this quarter for the major European carriers. Meanwhile, Lufthansa, which had already pre-warned on earnings in June, reported numbers that were far worse. This, after Air France-KLM didn’t wow anyone with their 2Q14 earning last month either.

Another winner across the pond? Ryanair, which easily beat expectations for the quarter.

On this side of the pond we talk about Southwest Airlines and its aspirations, we muse about how we believe Alaska Airlines holds the bulk of the leverage in the Battle for Seattle with Delta Air Lines, and we talk about JetBlue and its transitional year.

We also take a short look at the recent earnings results reported by Spirit and WestJet. 

Which reminds me. Were you aware that WestJet plans to acquire wide-bodied 767s — which it intends to use to fly to Hawaii? Didn’t think so.

Switching gears, last week we attended the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) conference out in Los Angeles. Just me and 6,000 of our closest friends.

We’ll give you the scoop on what the three major U.S airline CEOs — Richard Anderson, Doug Parker, and Jeff Smisek, had to say at the conference, along with a lot more.

As for airline stocks last week, it was a bad week — just as it was for the markets in general. Goat of the Week honors went to shares of SkyWest. 

All that — and more — this week in PlaneBusiness Banter.