Canadian Cuts, Quarterly Losses, and Other Airline News This Week

In this week’s roundup of airline-related stories from the past 7 days that didn’t get their own article, we look at more quarterly results from airlines, plus changes from United, Lufthansa, and Virgin.

Let’s jump in.

United Adds More Daytime Flying to London

United Airlines is betting that more passengers want daytime flights from the U.S. East Coast to London than the usual overnight, eastbound crossings of the Atlantic.

The airline is shifting 1 of its Newark (EWR) to London Heathrow (LHR) flights from an evening to a morning departure. From October 25, according to a schedule published by Airline Routes, United will introduce a second daytime departure from Newark while reducing evening departures from 6 to 5 daily. The new daytime flight will leave Newark at 9:10 a.m. and land in London at 9:20 p.m. All flights from Newark to London are on the Boeing 767-300ER.

Many business and leisure flyers like daytime departures from the East Coast because they land in time to get a full night’s sleep and be ready for work or sightseeing the next day.

JetBlue Reduces Quarterly Loss, Expects Soft Demand

Another U.S. airline, JetBlue, has joined the ranks of companies saying they can’t provide guidance to investors about their full-year financial results because the economic environment is too uncertain.

The New York-based airline reported a loss of $208 million in the quarter ending March 31, compared with a loss of $716 million for the same period of 2024. Demand fell in February and March, and CEO Joanna Geraghty said that JetBlue expects that to continue into the second quarter, the Wall Street Journal reported. In response, the airline is considering more capacity reductions and may retire some planes faster than previously planned.

In the second quarter, JetBlue and United could announce a partnership they are currently negotiating, which may lead to the return of United at New York-JFK and reciprocal mileage earning.

Canada’s WestJet Cuts Another U.S. Route

Last month, Westjet — the second-largest airline in Canada and a Delta partner — said it scrapped a new flight between Calgary (YYC) and New York LaGuardia (LGA) before it even began. That flight had been announced earlier this year, just before a new administration took office in the U.S. and began talking of annexing Canada.

And now, WestJet is cutting another service between Canada and the U.S. in the face of falling demand as Canadians forgo travel to their neighboring nation.

“Due to a downward shift in demand for U.S. travel, WestJet has made the difficult decision to suspend scheduled direct service between Vancouver, BC and Austin, Texas,” a spokesperson told Canada’s Financial Post (emphasis ours).  WestJet will continue to serve Austin (AUS) from Calgary.

The Financial Post also quoted a March survey conducted by Abacus Data, according to which 56% of Canadians who planned to visit the U.S. this year had either cancelled or changed their travel plans.

Every Lufthansa Group Airline Lost Money in the First Quarter

The first quarter of the year is typically the worst performing for airlines in the Northern hemisphere, where it’s winter and there are no holidays prompting people to travel. This contributed to a loss at every airline in the Lufthansa Group, Europe’s biggest by passengers carried.

Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa, and Swiss all reported a loss in the January-March 2025 period. The good news is that all of them also narrowed the loss compared to the same period of 2024, except for Eurowings, the group’s low-cost arm. (Lufthansa Group’s European rivals also have a dedicated low-cost carrier: Transavia for the Air France-KLM group and Vueling for IAG.)

Italian flag carrier ITA Airways joined the group during the quarter, after Lufthansa bought 41% of its shares from the Italian government. Lufthansa didn’t break out how ITA performed in the quarter but said there had been a “pro rata negative result from its equity investment in ITA Airways.”

Lufthansa also warned, according to Simple Flying, that tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and other uncertainties “are making it difficult to forecast the coming quarters accurately.”

Lufthansa Ends Duty-Free Sales on Board

Another big European airline is killing inflight duty-free sales, after KLM did so in 2020.

German aviation news site aeroTELEGRAPH reported that Lufthansa decided to stop onboard sales in September 2025. The reason is that falling revenue doesn’t justify continuing to carry goods that take up space and weight on planes, where every ounce counts. Germany’s flag carrier, however, will keep an online catalog and its Worldshop stores at airports in Germany and Austria.

Judging by a reader poll on the aeroTELEGRAPH site, Lufthansa made the right decision: 74% of respondents said they never buy from the onboard duty-free shop and would not miss the opportunity.

Norse Atlantic To Cut U.S. Flights by 52% Next Winter

Low-cost, long-haul airline Norse Atlantic has canceled 3 routes between Europe and the U.S. in the 2024-25 winter schedule. With the cancellation of Athens (ATH) to New York-JFK, Berlin (BER) to JFK, and Paris (CDG) to Los Angeles (LAX) in the December-February timetable, Norse Atlantic will have 52% fewer flights to the U.S. compared to the same period a year earlier.

Simple Flying reported that the airline will fly the following services to the U.S. next winter:

• London Gatwick (LGW)-Orlando (MCO)
• London Gatwick-New York JFK
• Paris (CDG)-New York JFK (no flights in February)
• Rome (FCO)-Los Angeles (LAX) (no flights in February)
• Rome-New York JFK (no flights in February)

Norse Atlantic also ended flights from London Gatwick to Las Vegas (LAS) and will end Gatwick to Miami (MIA) in October. It plans, however, to start seasonal summer flights from Athens (ATH) to Los Angeles in June.

Virgin Atlantic Cuts London to Tel Aviv

Virgin Atlantic said it will not bring back the service from London Heathrow (LHR) to Tel Aviv (TLV) after suspending flights to Israel in October 2023 as a consequence of the Israel-Hamas war. At just over 4 hours, this was by far the shortest flight in the Virgin network, which now consists only of long-hauls. It was supposed to restart in October 2025 after a 2-year suspension.

With a relatively small fleet, Virgin is employing all of its jets for services to North America, Africa, and Asia and clearly decided that it had a better use for its planes. The Jerusalem Post reported that travelers who booked flights to Tel Aviv on Virgin will be notified by email before May 10. Since Virgin and Israeli airline El Al are codeshare partners on the London to Tel Aviv route, passengers will likely be rebooked on El Al, which continues flying between the 2 cities, as do British Airways and easyJet.

Final Thoughts

The first quarter of the year isn’t usually a great time for airlines based in the northern half of the globe, where winter weather and a lack of major holidays bring slow bookings — and often quarterly losses. This year has been no exception, but we’re seeing a lot of exciting news on the horizon.