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By carrying only 150,000 passengers of its normally 42.4 million passengers and grounding all but a few aircraft Ryanair Europe's largest airline, will show a loss of 100 million pounds. It will resume operations by July when it expects about half of the 42.4 million passengers for the quarter. Routes will be cut and prices adjusted with profits expected by September 2020. It expects full recovery of the airline industry to take about 2 years. For the financial year ending March 2021 it expects about 100 million passengers for the year down from 154 million passengers normal for the year. Ryanair is one of the only airlines that was able to plan this far. It has laid off one sixth of its 18,000 staff.

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WSJ Podcast looks at the structural failure of a 737 Max 9 jetplane from Boeing on an Alaska Airlines flight last week. This is a rarely seen failure where one sees a hole in the plane itself requiring a quick landing to safely get all passengers out. The 737 Max 9 has been a problem plane for Boeing for some time. Last week a Japanese Coast Guard plane crashed into a Japanese airliner with both given the go ahead on the same runway requiring all passengers to be evacuated in 18 minutes. Haneda airport and other airports now have new protocol for flights from Japanese airline supervisory authorites. what it shows is that new technologies make the basics of quality control and strict governmental supervision even more important not less as protocols can fail, governmental supervision can be deficient, and quality control in manufacturing process can be defective.

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Delta Airlines only gets about 1.6% of its revenue on flights from the U.S. to China. Poor customer service at China Eastern is leading to loss of revenue to competitors from China, Japan and Hong Kong. Delta is helping train China Eastern representatives at call centers in Shanghai and on airline counters to better respond to customers.

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Companies in the U.S. automibile market are again increasing their dependence on incentives to promote sales. GM's average incentive per vehicle was $3,732 in February 2011, according to Credit Suisse, up 13% from 2010.

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Southwest started flights to New York's La Guardia and Boston's Logan airports in 2009 but has cut service on other routes. It is cutting capital expenditures in half 2009 and recently cut flight capacity by 4%. It has locked in 40% of ts fuel needs in secon half 2009 capped at $71 a barrel, and 30% of its fuel needs for 2010 at $77 a barrel. The new contracts allow it to use planes as collateral withcounterparties.

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Rising fuel prices are altering buying patterns across airlines, autos, food and other businesses says this report in WSJ. With prices at over $5 a gallon the impact is being felt across the US and other economies. Export of oil from the US for arbitrage opportunities and lack of growth in the shale industry with price volatility, is resulting in shortages of supplies and higher prices. About one fifth of the 8.3% inflation increase in April 2022 in US was from oil price increases. Similar patterns are seen in Europe and other countries. Inflation is expected to last through 2023.

Pent up demand for travel after the pandemic lockdowns means travel by car and by airline is increasing at a time of higher inflation and oil prices. Motorists in the US are making more frequent trips to gas stations as they fill up for a specific dollar amount.

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2023 is the year of huge aviation orders. Some even say this may stave off a recession. Biden says this would create 1 million jobs in the US. Modi names about 10 American states that will benefit from India's growing civilian and military aircraft needs. The biggest order in aviation history was one of 500 single aisle planes from Airbus by India's Indigo Airlines. Before this order Air India made an order of 470 planes from Airbus and Boeing. Riyadh Air and the Saudi airline also place large orders. 

WSJ cautions that it takes 6 years for planes on order to be delivered. There are production and regulatory issues. Some of the orders can be pared down. One expert says it is a way to get in line for planes to be delivered by planning ahead as the Indians have done by foresight about rapidly growing demand.

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A CEO of American Airlines from 1985 to 1998 offers his views on what should be done to create a healthy airline industry. He wants to see significant government investment to build a new radar system ffor American skies and to do it faster than the current pace. Till such time he wants to see the government to limit flights to what the current system can handle as airlines will not do so because of competitive position. He would like to see government set stringent financial standards fo new lowcost airlines if their only purpose is to gain some short term profits by gaining market share through lower prices and waiting for an IPO and then sometime later going out of business. He would also limit American concessions to open skies to all airlines and would prohibit offshore maintenance. To increase room for airlines to recover costs and make a decent profit he would lower the fees and taxes that are about 15% or higher of an airline ticket.