Southwest Airlines’ new CEO, Bob Jordan, has taken on the task of guiding the carrier out of the Covid pandemic after two bruising years. Jordan, 61, who took the reins Tuesday, has 34 years of experience working at Southwest, overseeing a host of initiatives including Southwest’s network expansion and the airline’s acquisition of AirTran. His career has spanned paper tickets to mobile boarding passes. He replaces Gary Kelly, becoming the Dallas airline’s sixth CEO in its five-decade history. Kelly, 66, is staying on as executive chairman after more than 17 years as CEO, completing a succession plan unveiled last June. Jordan faces a host of challenges: a profit-crimping surge in expenses from fuel to salaries, strained relationships with labor, hiring struggles, the slow return of business travel, and ensuring the airline doesn’t repeat costly operational meltdowns of 2021. “Just do the basics right,” said Brett Snyder, a former airline manager who runs the Cranky Flier travel service and website. “Run a good operation. For me, that’s all that matters.” Southwest has already dialed back its growth plans. “If we need to, and I’m not predicting we will, we’ll continue to moderate our capacity because we are going to have a reliable operation for customers,” Jordan said Tuesday. He estimated that Southwest can’t fly between 35 and 40 of its roughly 730 Boeing 737 planes because it lacks sufficient staffing. The airline is planning to eventually ramp up to a fleet of around 1,000 jets. Southwest is already trying to address some of its problems, raising minimum wages to $17 from $15 an hour to try to staff up. Jordan has said the airline plans to hire 8,000 people this year, after 5,000 last year, partially the result of losing thousands of workers in the pandemic at the company’s urging, in a bid to cut its labor bill. Story has more.<br/>
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Low-cost airline Allegiant Travel sailed past estimates for Q4 revenue and profit on Wednesday, and said bookings for leisure travel had started to see a recovery heading into the summer. Companies in the sector are growing more confident that travel will return despite on-and-off restrictions in response to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. “Despite the Omicron variant, forward bookings are strong for upcoming peak leisure travel periods,” CEO Maurice Gallagher said, adding that spring break bookings have been particularly robust. Allegiant’s operations were earlier hampered by crew shortages due to Omicron’s spread, but Gallagher said he expects that to normalize in time for peak travel in March. “Case counts have started to recede, thus the worst should be behind us,” he said. Larger carriers American Airlines and United Airlines have also said that a recovery in passenger traffic was likely in March. In Q4, Allegiant doubled its revenue to $496.9m, higher than analysts’ average estimate of $482.3m, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Net income came in at $10.7m, or 59 cents per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $28.8m, or $1.79 per share, a year earlier. <br/>
Overpacking is about to get pricier for passengers on Frontier Airlines. The Denver-based budget carrier isn't raising its checked baggage fees but is lowering the weight limit for the bags to 40 pounds from 50. That means overweight bag fees kick in at 41 pounds, instead of 51 pounds. The overweight bag fees, which are in addition to the fee to check the bag(s), will be $50 for bags between 41 pounds and 50 pounds and $100 for bags weighing 51 pounds to 100 pounds. The change takes effect March 1 for tickets purchased on or after Jan. 18, according to Frontier's website. Travelers who purchased tickets prior to Jan. 18 will still be allowed to check a bag that weighs up to 50 pounds without incurring an overweight bag charge, as will passengers who booked tickets recently for travel through the end of February. For bags over 50 pounds, those passengers will pay the current overweight bag fee of $75.<br/>
Ryanair has failed in its attempt to overturn a court ruling that it must pay compensation to passengers affected by industrial action. Tens of thousands of customers were affected when flights were cancelled due to a series of walkouts by pilots and cabin crew during the summer of 2018. The Dublin-based carrier said it was exempt from awarding compensation because the disruption was due to “extraordinary circumstances”. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) disagreed and took legal action against the airline. The high court rejected Ryanair’s position in April 2021 and, on Wednesday, the court of appeal dismissed its attempt to overturn the decision. At the time of the disruption, passengers whose short-haul flights to or from UK airports were cancelled within 14 days of the departure date were entitled to up to E250 (GBP208) of compensation based on the timings of alternative flights offered. The current maximum amount of compensation is GBP220. Lord Justice Newey, who heard the appeal with two other judges, said on Wednesday: “The strikes from which the cancellations arose, relating as they did to employment conditions of employees of Ryanair, did not constitute extraordinary circumstances whether or not the aims of the strikers were reasonable or achievable and notwithstanding the involvement of trade unions.” Paul Smith, the CAA consumers and markets director, said: “We are committed to protecting the rights of air passengers and are determined to ensure all airlines comply with their legal obligations. “We would like to advise consumers that Ryanair may seek to appeal this judgment to the supreme court. Affected customers should therefore await further information before pursuing their claims. Given consumers have been waiting for clarity on this subject since 2018, this process reinforces the need to modernise our powers.”<br/>