From door plugs to bankruptcy, we look back on the difficult year 2024 for U.S. airlines.

It’s been another eventful year for U.S. air travel. In just five days this year, the door panels of a nearly new car fell off. boeing 737 Max Alaska AirlinesIt departed from Portland, Oregon, after dark, sending the plane manufacturer back into crisis mode and delaying deliveries of new jets for months.

Two weeks later, a federal judge blocked it. jetblue airlines‘ The planned purchase of Spirit Airlines leaves smaller, older budget carriers to fend for themselves. Struggling Spirit eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.

The drama-filled year included an activist campaign by one of America’s most cautious airlines, a technology meltdown that stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers at the height of summer travel, and the first major U.S. airline merger since President Barack Obama.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker announced that he will resign on January 20, approximately one year into his five-year term, and the day President-elect Donald Trump takes office. US airspace leaderless again. Airline CEOs have been calling for more air traffic controllers and investment in air traffic technology.

Meanwhile, airlines competed to see who was the most “premium” and most profitable, and rooms closer to the front of the plane became a more popular purchase for travelers (sad for those looking for free upgrades). Top 2 Contenders — Faithful delta and challenger united — brought in most of the industry’s profits, its stock price broke records, smaller airlines leaned into wider seats and announced premium credit cards.

Airlines played a game of chicken until the industry cut back on the glut of U.S. flights, which lowered fares. However, despite the off-season, the overseas travel boom shows no signs of abating. Through all of this, demand for air travel has broken records across the board, and CEOs are also optimistic about next year.

Here’s what the two will accomplish in 2024:

The most profitable of America’s aircraft carriers has had a difficult time recovering from the July 19 crash. Crowd Strike Outages that took hundreds of hours microsoft Your Windows computer is offline. It cost Delta more than $500 million, stranded thousands of customers, and led to cancellations exceeding all of 2019. Nonetheless, Delta Air Lines stock broke records this month.

CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC last week that demand is expected to remain strong through 2025. Airlines have been beefing up their premium offerings for high-paying customers. For example, the Delta One Lounge is an exclusive lounge for travelers in the highest-tier cabins of the same name. New York, Los Angeles and Boston opened this year and more are scheduled to open in the future.

It’s a sign of Delta’s continued focus on luxury travelers and that “premium” brands like Spirit for budget travel have become so central to the top tier of travel that Martin Short appeared in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch last week. Actor Paul Rudd plays a Delta employee who blocks his entry into the coveted Delta Sky Club, saying his name “sounds bad.”

Although Delta failed to launch the business-class light product that some analysts had hoped for at its November investor event, the new lounge could ease crowding at Delta’s popular Sky Clubs.

Can they beat Delta? It’s unclear whether Magnolia Bakery’s banana pudding will be enough to entice more travelers to buy up first class, but United Airlines is pushing to include more premium leisure destinations from Mongolia to Greenland to northern Spain. We are making other big moves, including expanding our network. Next year, it will capture customers who want to travel off the beaten path of traditional U.S. airline destinations.

The airline has impressed investors with its performance this year and has set high goals for next year. By 2024, its stock price had more than doubled, making it the best-performing airline.

United is introducing a new narrow-body aircraft with a new interior featuring seatback screens and Bluetooth connectivity. Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink has announced a Wi-Fi partnership and will not charge for the service, following Delta and JetBlue.

CEO Scott Kirby said earlier this year that Boeing would not expect the yet-to-be-certified 737 Max 10 aircraft and would look at more Airbus aircraft as alternatives, but he said he supports Boeing’s new CEO. Kelly Ortberg.

Say goodbye to open seating. The Dallas-based airline reacted to loyal and disappointed customers alike last July when it said it would begin reassigning seats and update its uniformed cabins to include multiple rows to increase legroom in a bid to boost revenue. It was shocking. It was the biggest change in strategy in the carrier’s nearly half-century of flying.

Southwest has said it was working on changes for months, but after activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management bought a roughly $2 billion stake in the airline and pushed for changes that included the firing of CEO Bob Jordan. The airline announced this. He survived the campaign despite former CEO and former chairman Gary Kelly agreeing to retire. The truce led Southwest to appoint six new board members, including five appointed by Elliott in October.

american airlines It ousted commercial chief Vasu Raja in May after its sales strategy of selling directly to business travelers, excluding travel agents, backfired and the airline suddenly cut its sales guidance.

The outlook has improved and management is optimistic about year-end demand and out to 2025. I signed a new credit card agreement with my partner. cityAmerican plans to finalize its deal with Barclays, its remaining co-branding partner following its 2013 merger with US Airways.

What budget airline comedians hate is seeing the problem snowball this year, starting in January when a federal judge blocked JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit.

After the merger, Spirit faced other challenges, including a surge in labor and other costs after the pandemic, fierce competition in its domestic market, surging demand for travel to places it doesn’t fly (such as Italy and Japan), and Pratt. & Whitney’s engine recall had a major impact on Spirit, grounding dozens of planes.

Hemorrhaging as refinancing deadlines approach, Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, becoming the first major U.S. airline to do so since American Airlines in 2011. It is expected to appear in the first quarter, and it is unclear whether they will try it again. Combine with fellow low-cost carriers frontier.

Airlines have changed their long-standing business model of charging low fares and adding fees for everything else, like seat selection, to offering more bundle options in the summer.

Spirit saw its stock delisted after filing for bankruptcy, but JetBlue came out ahead after a judge blocked a planned acquisition focused on one goal: cutting costs and restoring profitability.

New CEO Joanna Geraghty and former managing director Marty St. George, who returned to the airline in February, aim to refocus the airline, which has added too many money-losing routes since the pandemic. We launched our strategy, JetForward. A plane with advanced equipment was placed in the wrong place.

Earlier this month, the airline announced that it would update some of its jets to domestic business class to complement its fleet featuring the top-of-the-line Mint business class.

The stock price rose more than 40% this year by Tuesday’s close, ranking first in history. S&P 500′result. Investors were pleased with the latest update, which showed better-than-expected earnings.

The airline began the year with a ruptured door plug on one of its new Boeing planes temporarily grounding the Max 9 and later a payout from Boeing to move the Maxes a few miles away in Renton, Washington.

A few months later, the company refocused on its nearly $2 billion acquisition of struggling airline Hawaiian Airlines. The merger cleared antitrust regulators over the summer, marking the first merger of a major U.S. airline since Alaska acquired Virgin America in 2016.

Alaska has posted solid profits, with its stock price soaring more than 70% so far this year. This is a premium of almost three times that of the overall market. Management laid out ambitious plans for investors earlier this month, announcing a global expansion of the integrated airline that would include nonstop service on widebody planes from Seattle, whose top competitor is Delta, to Europe and Asia.

First-class frontier? The airline is making a profit again and is trying to upscale its planes with plans to equip them with domestic first-class seats.

We also plan to offer more bundles that do not include seat assignments, baggage, and change fees.

CEO Barry Biffle said the airline expects to return to double-digit margins by mid-2025, blaming recent improvements on a series of network changes, including suspending flights on low-demand days and peak hours such as Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. I said I admit it. Markets like Florida and Las Vegas.

loyal travel‘s foray into the hotel business has suffered and it said it would undergo a strategic review of its Sunseeker resort in Florida this summer. He added that he expects to secure a capital partner for the property north of Fort Myers this fall.

Main business, low price Allegiant AirlinesThe company has turned a corner with strong demand during its peak season, new CEO Greg Anderson told investors this fall. The airline updated its fourth-quarter guidance in early December, which came ahead of analyst estimates.

With enviable margins, especially for low-cost carriers, the airline has benefited from cargo transportation contracts with: Amazon Deutsche Bank aviation analyst Mike Linenberg said competitors had reduced capacity at their home hub in Minneapolis this month.

“land of the sun“Diversification of revenues provides the company with an economic moat to remain profitable even in the most volatile and competitive quarter since the pandemic,” he wrote in a Dec. 11 note.

The airline has successfully shifted its schedule seasonally, expanding service to warmer destinations in the winter.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC and NBC, which broadcasts “Saturday Night Live.”