The results are in for Lufthansa, where next for Virgin, and thoughts on AirAsia's record-breaking

Q1 results for Europe’s legacy airlines were interesting, and the current conflict clearly shows in all cases. The most interesting note was Lufthansa saying their Q1 results this year were better than the Q1’25 results, which probably shows what a state they are in more than anything.

Virgin is once again flipping its network, dropping Dubai and leaving Seattle to its parents, while adding more capacity to South Africa for the winter. There are only so many times you can flip your network before it becomes a flop but Cape Town and Johannesburg buy them another five months before the next set of changes, what destinations will they pick next?

AirAsia’s order for 150 A220’s is interesting and it will be a challenge to make the economics work in such a low-cost model, but it feels a “right- sized” aircraft for the market, and it’s about time that they had some luck on their side.

Travelling through Chicago this week was a painless process from arrival through to terminal changes and multiple gate changes as the connection extended out. One observation, American Airlines staff wear their uniform, United Airlines staff wear their uniforms with pride…that cultural nuance makes all the difference in their financial performance.