How the airline story unfolded across the last decade

2010: After the great fall from the financial crisis came the jump back, as a sharp rise in both passenger and cargo traffic helped to make up some of the ground lost during the recession. Airlines too posted collective profits, a run which was to continue across the decade. British Airways and Iberia firmed a merger plan which established IAG, and the group subsequently acquired BMI, Vueling, Aer Lingus and, most recently, Air Europa. The partners also launched their joint venture across the Atlantic with Oneworld partner American Airlines.

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2011: After a much challenged development programme, Boeing's landmark 787 Dreamliner began commercial service with launch customer All Nippon Airways. By the end of the decade Boeing has booked over 1,400 orders from more than 80 customers, the latest of which was MIAT Mongolian Airlines leasing a 787-9 from Air Lease. Airbus's response to the Dreamliner, its A350XWB, entered service with launch customer Qatar Airways in January 2015. Elsewhere American Airlines parent AMR, the only US major to avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection post-9/11, was forced into a formal restructuring.

Source: Boeing

2012: Delta Air Lines' acquisition of Singapore Airlines' 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic was to be the start of the US giant developing an alliance and investment strategy that has played out in a number of deals across the decade, most recently with its acquisition of a stake in LATAM Airlines. LATAM was itself formed in 2012 from the merger of Brazilian carrier TAM and Chilean operator LAN. High-profile Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines was grounded, while established European names Spanair and Malev fell within a week of each other.

Source: Delta Air Lines

2013: The barrel price of Crude oil topped the $100 level all year as airlines grew accustomed to the new higher costs and passengers to fuel surcharges aimed at recouping some of the expense. Oil had first passed the $100 barrel price in 2011, and this was to mark a period of volatility and high prices which came to an equally sudden end with the sharp fall in the oil price in the second half of 2014. American Airlines' merger with US Airways completed a round of consolidation and restructuring among the US majors which helped to herald an unprecedented run of profitability in the region.

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2014: The tragic and mystifying loss of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200, operating flight MH370 to Beijing on 8 March, was to prove the biggest story of the decade. Despite extensive search efforts over the years, the cause and exact fate of the missing aircraft remains unresolved and subject to continued conjecture. The tragedy was compounded by the downing of a second Malaysia Airlines 777 just months later, when it was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile while flying over Ukraine with the loss of all 298 occupants. The year ended with another high-profile crash, this time the loss of an Indonesia AirAsia A320. Elsewhere air services to West Africa were disrupted by an Ebola outbreak, prompting carriers to drop flights to the affected countries

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2015: A spilling over of tensions with union activists during an industrial dispute resulted in images of Air France executives with shirts ripped off their backs. Strained labour relations at the French carrier remained a thorn in the side of Air France-KLM across much of the decade, though new group chief Ben Smith gained some respite with new deals struck during 2019. The downing of an Airbus A321 operated by Russia's MetroJet in the Sinai after takeoff from Egypt’s Sharm-el-Sheikh international airport was among the terrorist actions which hit North African tourism so hard during the decade. Leisure carrier Transaero – with its extensive fleet of large widebodies – was the biggest airline casualty of the geopolitical and economic crisis in Russia.

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2016: A landmark agreement to establish a global carbon emissions offset scheme struck at the ICAO general assembly in Montreal did much to show a more co-ordinated industry approach to tackling its climate change contributions. While implementation of the CORSIA scheme was reaffirmed in the autumn of 2019, pressure for airlines to act quicker and deeper on emissions continues to mount, particularly within Europe. Air transport was again a terrorist target following a fatal bomb blast at Brussels Airport. Alaska Airlines beat JetBlue in the race to acquire Virgin America. The latter had been the most recent player to make its mark in the US market, but the brand ultimately disappeared as it was absorbed into Alaska Airlines.

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2017: Donald Trump's move into office brought an immediate impact after he signed an executive order restricting entry into the USA for citizens from seven primarily Muslim countries. While ultimately overturned, the move and other travel restrictions did much to dampen demand for air travel for the Gulf majors to the USA, which when followed by a rethink by Etihad of its misfiring investment policy and the closing of airspace to Qatar by several neighbouring states contributed to a slowing of the breakneck expansion of the Gulf majors. Etihad's pulling of future funding for Air Berlin and Alitalia ultimately ended with the German carrier's financial collapse and the Italian flag carrier entering extraordinary administration, where it remains today.

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2018: Norwegian dominated headlines across the year. All eyes were already on the carrier as it pioneered development of the low-cost model on long-haul routes, even before IAG's takeover offer for the airline. That was rejected and IAG ultimately walked away, while Norwegian by the winter embarked on a major route and financial restructuring which turned into a major drive to secure profitability during 2019 after many years of rapid growth. Primera, which was also targeting the long-haul low-cost sector, fell by the wayside, but in the summer news emerged of David Neeleman's plan for a new US start-up to launch in 2021 using Airbus A220s.

Source: Norwegian

The grounding in March of the Boeing 737 Max after a second fatal crash was to have wide-ranging impact across the rest of the year both for the manufacturer and the many operators of the type. It overshadowed another major airframe development earlier in the year when Airbus announced it was to end production of its A380 programme after reaching an amended agreement with its primary customer Emirates. Airline groundings during the year included Jet Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, Wow Air and Avianca Brazil.

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