United Has Updates, New Lounges Are Coming, and Other Airline News This Week

Every week, we look at airline industry stories that did not get an individual article in the past 7 days. This week, we’ve seen news affecting air transport in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Let’s have a look.

United Buys JetBlue? Maybe

The most recent merger in the U.S. airline industry was last year: between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. And if there’s another merger on the horizon between major U.S. carriers, it might be between United Airlines and JetBlue.

Observers note that United dominates at Newark airport but has no foothold at New York’s main long-haul airport, JFK — an airport where JetBlue has a hefty 26% share of passengers. That, plus its financial troubles, would make JetBlue an attractive target for United.

United’s CEO, Scott Kirby, confirmed that view when he said at an industry conference this week that “JetBlue is the obvious candidate. It’s possible,” because “I’d like to have a presence on the other side of the river at JFK.”

That said, Kirby downplayed speculation that an offer might be imminent. According to a transcript on investing.com, he said that a move is “less likely than others think” and that United, which is profitable, doesn’t have to do anything: “We don’t need a deal for sure.” Things could change quickly, though, if JetBlue, which hasn’t made a profit since 2020, finds itself in need of a rescue. “The ball is going to be in JetBlue’s court,” Kirby said.

DOGE Cuts May Cost United $250 Million a Quarter

United is also seeing “weakness in demand” this quarter, Kirby said at the conference — and a lot of that is due to government cuts reducing travel. Between government staff and consultants spending less on travel, “[T]hat’s running down about 50% right now,” Kirby said.

Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella elaborated, saying that the federal government accounts for a big chunk of revenue at United, which dominates passenger traffic at Washington Dulles (IAD).

“It is roughly 4% of our revenue when you take the direct and the indirect impact of what we think the government provides United,” Nocella said.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, United had about $13 billion in revenue from passenger traffic. If quarterly revenue is down by half on 4% of United’s revenue, that means government cuts cost the airline around $250 million in missed revenue — just in the first quarter of this year alone.

United executives expressed, diplomatically, confidence in the administration, with Kirby saying, “I’m hopeful … all of us think that there’s opportunity to make the government more efficient,” even though he added he would “go about DOGE a little differently if I was running it. A little more scalpel, maybe a lot more scalpel approach.”

Political tensions with Canada are also reducing demand for transborder traffic. There’s been a “big drop in Canadian traffic to go into the U. S.,” Kirby said.

As a consequence, “United Airlines is retiring 21 aircraft, linked to reduced Canadian and government market traffic, and is adjusting its yield management to favor leisure bookings.”

It’s not clear whether those 21 aircraft retirements are in addition to the 20 Airbus A319 and A320 slated for exit this year in the fleet plan United shared with investors in January. Even if they were, though, the airline’s fleet would still be slightly larger at the end of 2025 than at the beginning of the year: 1,013 airplanes versus 1,010.

With all those potential drawbacks, United said that it flew more people every day in February than any other February in its history. The leisure bookings Kirby mentioned are doing well indeed. The airline expects its busiest spring break ever, with 5% more passengers from March 10 to April 27 than the same period last year.

Delta’s SkyClub in Denver Gets Bigger, Better

A United hub where the competition is trying to make inroads is Denver (DEN), where Delta Air Lines will renovate and expand its Sky Club lounge, The Points Guy’s Zach Griff reported.

The current Denver Sky Club is a small and rather unappealing space, with restrooms far away from the lounge. The new lounge will be at least double the size, according to Griff’s scoop, and incorporate the existing USO lounge.

Delta has less than 5% of passenger traffic in Denver, compared to 47% for United and 30% for Southwest. This lounge expansion may be part of a push to attract business flyers in the booming metro Denver area, where population is forecasted to grow from 3.2 to 3.6 million in the next 5 years.

Finally, Korean Air Is Building New Lounges

Delta’s closest partner in Asia is also investing in lounges, and not a moment too soon. Korean Air has grown into a leading global carrier and a member of the SkyTeam alliance, and it boasts a business and first class worthy of your points redemptions.

The weak spot in its offering has always been its lounges, lagging far behind the competition — especially in terms of food.

That’s changing, with new lounges coming in Seoul, Los Angeles, and New York.

Executive Traveller spoke with David Pacey, Korean Air’s executive in charge of lounges and inflight service, who revealed that the first new lounges will be at Seoul Incheon (ICN) Terminal 2, opening in August. This will include a business class lounge and a separate Miler Club Lounge for passengers in Prestige (i.e., business) class who also have high status in the SKYPASS frequent-flyer program.

Next year, Incheon will have “a brand new First Class lounge” with à la carte dining “and a monster Prestige Class lounge,” Pacey said.

Los Angeles (LAX) will also follow the double-lounge approach with new first- and business-class lounges coming in January 2026.

Last in the new wave will be New York (JFK) in June 2026 with a lounge in the New Terminal 1, which will greatly improve upon the current, and frankly awful, food situation in the Korean lounge at JFK.

“Currently in all of our lounges, whether it’s in Korea or overseas, we still have cup noodles,” Pacey admitted. “In the future, we will be synonymous with noodles cooked to order.” The new lounges will also have dedicated bakeries, making pizza and croissants among other things.

KLM Gets a Warning: Stop Publishing Misleading Mileage Fares

We’ve all been there: You find a great mileage fare in business class, but when you go book it, the airline’s site tells you it’s no longer available. And that’s what got Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France and KLM, in trouble with the authority that regulates advertising in KLM’s home country, the Netherlands.

The Advertising Code Foundation (SRC from its Dutch initials) has warned KLM to “cease advertising in such a manner” as to mislead customers on the availability of mileage fares that don’t actually exist.

The case, alleging false advertising, was brought by a customer who had found a trip from Seoul (ICN) to the Antwerp train station in Belgium (ZWE) via Amsterdam (AMS) in business class for 70,000 miles and 212 euros in taxes and fees, listed on the Flying Blue site.

The SRC website explains (in Dutch) that the plaintiff then tried to book, saw a message that the May 2025 flight wasn’t available, and got the same answer when calling KLM. The plaintiff also said people in online forums complained of the same issue with Flying Blue for years.

KLM explained to the authority that the cause was a glitch due to the system’s inability to integrate the Air France and KLM databases that store information on the availability of award seats. Because of this, it showed seats available in business class when there weren’t any.

KLM added that it’s still working to resolve the issue. In the meantime, it has stopped showing mixed Air France-KLM travel options for award tickets on its site. That will help the airline avoid further trouble with the SRC, but it doesn’t help customers who still can’t book Flying Blue awards if they involve flights on both Air France and KLM.

Qatar Ends Award Discounts for Top Elites

Members of Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club loyalty program who hold top status previously could book award flights with a 5% discount. That’s no longer the case. As reported by Loyalty Lobby, Gold and Platinum members are no longer eligible for the 5% discount on Qatar Airways awards booked online or through the app.

All mentions of a discount have disappeared from the web page listing benefits for the various status tiers with Qatar, which has not formally communicated the change.

A minor bit of good news, however, is that Gold and Platinum members can still change or cancel award bookings free of charge.

Some Asian Carriers Ban Use of Power Banks

Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries can be a serious hazard on airplanes if they catch fire. They have been banned from checked luggage everywhere since 2016 and can only fly in the cabin, where the risk of uncontrollable fires is much lower.

Some Asian carriers are going further and banning all use and charging of power banks. They can only be carried on board but can’t connected to devices or charged.

Thai Airways said in a notice on its site that “the use and charging of power banks (portable batteries) will not be permitted at any time during the flight” from March 15. Singapore Airlines and Scoot are doing the same, starting April 1.

Things Aren’t Looking Good for Silver Airways

We reported last week that regional carrier Silver Airways was in trouble and was canceling numerous flights — something it said it didn’t plan to do when filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, the airline has furloughed 20% of its pilots and returned much of its fleet to lessors, according to documents obtained by AeroCrewNews.

Independent Watchdog Wants Starlink/FAA Investigated

A U.S. government watchdog group is asking the Department of Transportation to investigate whether Elon Musk has committed a crime in his dealings with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Campaign Legal Center sent a letter to the DoT’s Acting Inspector General, Mitch Behm, asking to investigate whether the FAA’s dealings with Starlink, Musk’s company that provides satellite internet, violate the law against conflict of interest.

Multiple press reports cited in the letter say that the FAA is planning to cancel a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Verizon in 2024 to provide a communications platform for the U.S. air traffic control system. The FAA would give the contract to Starlink instead. The letter says that “recent reporting has identified Musk as the person directing the deployment of Starlink equipment across the FAA’s communications network.” This could benefit Musk personally as Starlink CEO and create a conflict of interest in violation of federal law.

The Campaign Legal Center is an independent body, led by Trevor Potter, a Republican lawyer and former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

Final Thoughts

This week in air travel, the good news has come from airlines giving flyers bigger and better lounges, while the bad has come from those that took away some perks from their top customers (Qatar) or got in trouble for publishing award fares that didn’t really exist (KLM).

Stay with us next week for another roundup of the news that affects air travelers.