Airline Weekly Lounge Episode 40: Emirates Strikes Back

Emirates last week posted an operating margin nearing 10% for its fiscal year. That’s significantly better than the 7% the year before and a whole lot better than the 5%, 4%, and 3% posted in the years prior to that. Is the airline permanently out of its funk? Turkish Airlines meanwhile is struggling in the face of serious revenue declines brought on by fears of terrorism, among other things. To make matters worse, costs are rising too, which is particularly nasty when combined with low revenues. Still, Turkish remains undeterred if its 19% capacity growth rate is any indication. By the way, is such growth sustainable? Plus we check in on two very sick airlines, Gol and Air Berlin. And Frontier posted a mediocre Q4 in what was otherwise a terrific year.