The Engine Cowl

podcast

Airline Insight: Lufthansa Group wins the TAP Air Portugal bid

In this episode, John Strickland and Garth Lund discuss Lufthansa Group’s winning bid for a stake in TAP, the Azores Airlines sale, and John’s interview with Norse Atlantic’s CEO at WAF.

podcast

Airline Insight: Volotea downsizes as European airlines adjust to higher fuel costs

In this episode, John Strickland and Garth Lund take a deep dive into Volotea’s restructuring as high fuel prices put pressure on European airlines.

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: How Movmo is bringing identity-led checkout to airline booking flows

Around 89% of airline booking carts are abandoned, according to Movmo, which is building a checkout and identity layer to change that. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with Kameron Bertine, co-founder of Movmo, about one-click checkout, why identity matters for personalization, and why agentic booking is not

podcast

Airline Insight: European airlines prepare for a challenging winter season

In this episode, John Strickland and Garth Lund look at some of the actions taken by European airlines in light of a persistently challenging operating environment.

podcast

Airline Insight: Strong Q2 revenue vs higher fuel bill for European network carriers

In this episode, John Strickland and Garth Lund look at June quarter results for the European network airlines where strong premium and long-haul revenue helped to offset the impact of higher fuel prices.

podcast

Airline Insight: Softer yields and higher fuel prices hit European LCC profitability

Both easyJet and Ryanair reported similar trends for the June quarter with softer yields and higher fuel expenses hitting profitability.

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: How fare data from Traveldax is helping airlines compete on price across every channel

Traveldax's team has spent over a decade helping airlines and OTAs understand how their fares stack up in the market. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with Valentino Portnoy, founder and CEO of Traveldax, about how airlines use competitor fare data and how AI could change the way

podcast

Airline Insight: How European airline consolidation is progressing

easyJet has recently been the subject of several bids by Castlelake to acquire the airline. The move comes amid a broader trend of M&A activity in the sector. In this episode, John Strickland and Garth Lund look at ongoing consolidation among key European airlines.

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: How flight subscriptions are turning unsold seats into recurring revenue

For almost a decade, Caravelo has been at the forefront of scaling the flight subscription model with airlines worldwide. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with Iñaki Uriz, CEO and Co-founder of Caravelo, about why flight subscriptions are gaining traction with airlines and how the model generates incremental revenue.

podcast

Airline Insight: How Europe's three large LCCs are weathering a challenging environment

Ryanair recently published an impressive set of results for the past financial year and announced that it is nearly debt-free. Meanwhile, easyJet saw non-fuel cost inflation increase over the past six months.

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: How AI is transforming revenue management

Advanced AI and machine-learning techniques are transforming how airlines optimize revenue. Wiremind has been at the forefront of this shift since 2014. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with Charles Pierre, CTO and Co-founder of Wiremind, about how AI is changing airline revenue management (RM), from demand forecasting

podcast

Airline Insight: European network airlines deliver a strong Q1

Q1 saw almost across-the-board margin improvement among Europe's network airlines but higher fuel prices have put a damper on expectations for the rest of 2026. In this episode of Airline Insight, John Strickland and Garth Lund look at how the three network airlines groups in Europe

United Airlines

United Airlines returns to Venezuela

United Airlines has announced it will resume nonstop daily service between Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS) in Caracas, subject to government approval. Starting August 11, the route will be operated with Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. United Airlines becomes the second United States-

Lufthansa Group

Lufthansa Group to increase its stake in ITA Airways to 90%

Lufthansa Group announced on May 12 that it “will exercise its option to acquire a majority stake in ITA Airways in June of this year”. The group will pay €325 million to increase its stake in the Italian airline from 41% to 90%. Lufthansa Group has held a 41% interest

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: The growing role of AI in airline customer service

Disrupted flights result in costs of over €100 million per year for large airlines like easyJet or Wizz Air. They also drive high volumes of claims that must be managed by airline customer service teams. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with Xavier Orr, Chief Operating Officer and Aviation Practice

Lufthansa Group

Lufthansa Group unbundles carry-on bags

Lufthansa Group announced on April 23 that it will introduce a fourth branded fare for short and medium-haul flights: Economy Basic. The new Economy Basic fare will sit below the existing Economy Light fare and will include only a personal item and no carry-on bag. A carry-on

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: The underestimated potential of group travel

Group travel generates $30-50 billion revenue annually for airlines. Yet most airlines still rely on webforms and manually quote each group. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with George Michalopoulos, founder of Groupz, about how airlines can automate group bookings, from instant quotes to preparing for agentic booking. Why

podcast

Airline Insight: How are airlines managing the impact of the Iran conflict?

Between higher fuel prices, shifting demand, and airspace closures, the Iran conflict has impacted both the demand and supply side of the air travel market.  In this episode of Airline Insight, John Strickland and Garth Lund look at how airlines are managing the effects of the crisis.  What we dive

TAP Air Portugal

TAP Portugal sees operating margins fall slightly: three takeaways from its 2025 results

TAP Air Portugal sees lower margins in 2025 on the back of falling unit revenue.

San Francisco International Airport

SFO's new runway limit: the operational impact

Despite seeing its runway limit reduced from 54 arrivals/hour to 36 arrivals/hour, SFO's operation has been relatively resilient so far.

Airline Tech

The Airline Tech Podcast: How Hands In drives revenue growth for airlines through split payments

Airlines can lose up to 5% of direct sales due to insufficient funds on the customer's credit card. In this episode, Garth Lund speaks with Sam Flynn, founder of Hands In, about how split payments, which divide a single booking across multiple cards, payment methods or payers, can

TAP Air Portugal

Two bids submitted for TAP Air Portugal

Lufthansa Group and Air France-KLM have each submitted bids for the Portuguese airline

Icelandair

Icelandair evaluates investment in Maltese AOC

Icelandair is looking at investing in Fly Play Europe to gain access to a Maltese AOC

Philippine Airlines awarded its first credit rating: why it matters

Philippine Airlines has been awarded its first credit rating by Moody's Ratings

Featured

Winter Holiday Travel Efficiency: Do European Airports Really Beat the US?

The Engine Cowl is pleased to publish the following article written by Eli Masinter, founder of GOscore. You can also watch or listen to our accompanying interview with Eli on The Airline Tech Podcast. Ep 1: How GOscore optimizes airline ground operations using satellite data - with Garth Lund and Eli