PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

home-typewriter copy 1This week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.

Delta Air Lines kicked off the 3Q14 earnings season last week. The airline reported in-line earnings — beating analyst consensus by a couple of pennies.

Net income was $357 million or $0.42. Excluding items, net income rocketed to just over $1 billion, or $1.20. The analyst consensus forecast had been for EPS of $1.18, so the airline came in pretty much in line.

The airline disclosed no real surprises in its earnings call, but there were some fireworks when JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker pushed CEO Richard Anderson on the subject of capacity.

If that wasn’t enough, one of the industry’s most energetic analysts, and the analyst who recently downgraded shares of Delta Air Lines, Hunter Keay with Wolfe Research, was not on the call. We’ll fill you in on why that was the case.

In other news, airline stocks rebounded last week from their Ebola sell-off madness, we get you updated on the craziness that is surrounding the tentative agreement vote for the American Airlines flight attendants, there was a recent change at the top at ExpressJet, and much, much more.

All in this week’s edition of PlaneBusiness Banter