American Express and Delta extended their credit card partnership through 2029, the companies jointly announced Tuesday, a significant extension of one of the larger financial partnerships between a major US airline and a credit card company. Separately, Delta raised its forecast of Q1 profit, citing higher demand from business travellers. Delta shares rose and helped lift other airline stocks in afternoon trading. American Express will pay Delta more per year for the partnership, up to nearly $7b annually by 2023 from $3.4b paid in 2018. Joseph DeNardi, an airline analyst for Stifel, said the announcement was sooner than anticipated "and the improvement in revenue and economics are significantly better than we were expecting." DeNardi said the deal's long duration makes it more likely that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway will buy Delta. Berkshire Hathaway is Delta's biggest shareholder. It recently increased its stake to 10.4%, and those shares were worth $3.7 billion at Delta's stock price on Tuesday afternoon. The possibility of Buffett buying an airline has been the subject of much speculation in recent months, with most of the attention focused on Delta and Southwest.<br/>
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Taiwan’s China Airlines has appointed its president, Hsieh Su-Chien, as the new chairman, following a board of directors meeting April 2. Hsieh will retain his appointment as CAL president. Hsieh will replace Ho Nuan-hsuan, who was appointed in 2016, brought in to resolve a flight attendant strike during that time. Hsieh’s new appointment is also endorsed by the Taoyuan Union of Pilots, which initiated a strike in February. The same organization also called for the removal of Ho during a seven-day strike, and it was Hsieh who established a “direct and smooth” channel of communication with the union. “Through the multiple conversations with the airline’s management, we have felt that Hsieh was willing to listen to union members and viewed the interaction between the company’s management and the union from the most positive light,” the pilots union said. “We hope that Hsieh can fundamentally improve the labor-management relations after he becomes the chairman, as the relations need to be founded on mutual trust. We also hope that his leadership can unite CAL’s employees so that we can together to improve the company’s operation and enhance its service quality and aviation safety.” <br/>