Southwest, the “legacy LCC,” part 2: Bloated labor expense, difficult fleet strategy result in uncompetitive cost structure

Subscription Required By Judson Rollins Introduction May 20, 2024, © Leeham News: Southwest Airlines was founded on the principles of high employee productivity and low labor costs. But 53 years after beginning operations, its labor cost as a… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: New engine development. Part 8. Open Rotor technology

May 17, 2024, ©. Leeham News: We do an article series about engine development. The aim is to understand why engine development now has longer timelines than airframe development and carries larger risks of product maturity problems. To… Read More

Boeing’s safety, labor battles heat up while CEO will walk with $34m payout

By Scott Hamilton May 16, 2024, © Leeham News: Even as Boeing is under fire for safety issues, the company’s battles heat up. Boeing remains at an impasse with its engineers and technicians union over creating a new… Read More

A350-1000 or 777-8? Part 2

Subscription required By Bjorn Fehrm May 16, 2024, © Leeham News: We are doing an article series comparing the capabilities of the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777X. We have looked at the A350-1000 versus the 777-9 and… Read More

Southwest, the “legacy LCC,” part 1: Not keeping up with industry standards crimps unit revenue

Subscription Required By Judson Rollins Introduction  May 13, 2023, © Leeham News: Southwest Airlines, previously a longtime darling of investors and leisure passengers alike, struggles to find its footing now that the post-covid US domestic market is returning to… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: New engine development. Part 7. Open Rotor Propulsive Efficiency

May 10, 2024, ©. Leeham News: We do an article series about engine development. The aim is to understand why engine development now has longer timelines than airframe development and carries larger risks of product maturity problems. To… Read More

Airbus’ A350-1000 or Boeing’s 777-8? Part 1

Subscription required By Bjorn Fehrm May 9, 2024, © Leeham News: We are doing an article series comparing the capabilities of the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777X series. We started with the 777-9, the larger model. Now,… Read More

Embraer: Improved results, but no plan for new narrowbody

By Leeham News Team May 7, 2024, ©. Leeham News: Embraer presented its 1Q2024 results today, showing revenues for the period up 25% and deliveries up 67% year-on-year. Notably, however, the Brazilian planemaker dampened speculation of a push… Read More

Shanahan: Spirit AeroSystems and Airbus need to have “family meeting”

By the Leeham News Team May 7, 2024, © Leeham News: For a company actively negotiating its own dismemberment, Spirit AeroSystems managed to record first quarter losses even worse than Wall Street expected. The company recorded $617M in losses… Read More

Southwest could solve its MAX 7 woes … by buying Breeze?

Subscription Required By Judson Rollins Introduction  May 6, 2024, © Leeham News: Southwest Airlines, still awaiting the certification and delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX 7 as a replacement for its aging 737-700s, might have an unorthodox alternative:… Read More