Southwest Airlines

Scarce aircraft, doubled fuel costs and Spirit’s exit have handed US airlines pricing power not seen since 2022. Data from a Cirium and Bloomberg Intelligence webinar shows who used it, who could not, and what changes when fuel eases.

Delta has added free Wi-Fi to its last uncovered Asia-Pacific routes, reaching about 95% of flights, as United and Southwest close the gap with Starlink.

Delta, United, American and Southwest all leaned on loyalty and premium in Q3 2026 to absorb fuel costs, each with its own lever but the same underlying logic.

Southwest adds Platinum status, Aeroplan pays points for restaurant tables, United uses Starlink to lure rival elites. Loyalty is moving beyond the seat.

SAS revealed a new Copenhagen flagship lounge four days before launching its “Scandinavian as Standard” brand platform. Read together, the lounge is the first physical proof of the brand claim.

Southwest’s “Enter Airplane Mode” campaign turns screenshots of your phone notifications into Rapid Rewards points. It launched weeks after the same airline built a premium lounge network with Chase.

Delta folded IT and digital product into a single role reporting to the CEO, and filled it from outside aviation. It is the fifth cross-industry hire for a marketing, loyalty or technology mandate in under a year.