Luggage tariffs from Southwest, strikes in Finland, and ongoing delays returning to Tel Aviv.

Southwest Airlines finally start charging for luggage, US$45 per bag seems about the market rate. Assume 10% of their passenger put a bag down the belt and that’s an incremental revenue gain of US$652 million for the airline in a full year; how could they have left such revenues on the table for so long? Unions in Finland continue to hit the self-destruct button with more industrial action planned for the next few weeks. When will they realise that the market has been ripped apart by the loss of Russian air space and these actions aren’t helping anyone in the long-term rebuild the market. And sadly airlines continue to delay their return to Tel Aviv with the ongoing risk. Ironically it’s never been a better time for El Al who recorded a 22% operating margin on 2024; there’s always a winner somewhere in any event.