Chief executives at US majors Southwest Airlines and United Airlines disclosed this week that their bookings data has not shown evidence of a recession in the USA, or even a hint of one on the horizon. Southwest’s chief executive Bob Jordan acknowledges the question he is asked most by financial analysts: “Are we going to have a recession?” “What I would say is we don’t know,” Jordan said on 8 December during an event in New York hosted by the Wings Club. “We are already planning for very, very tepid growth in GDP.” Contingency planning at Southwest, however, is not based on data showing that a recession is looming. Jordan says that leisure demand “especially is really strong” and business demand is recovering. "We're coming into 2023 with a lot of momentum," he says. "We have visibility for 90 days. Obviously [we have visibility in] December, and [we have] good visibility into the bookings in January, February and March, and we see no weakness. No weakness at all. That doesn't mean [a recession is] not coming. But there's no weakness in anything that we see in the booking trends." United's chief executive Scott Kirby on 6 December noted during an interview on the CNBC TV show Squaw Box that the USA is "probably going to have a mild recession induced by the [Federal Reserve]". Asked if has seen any sign that demand is weakening because of a real or imagined recession in play or on the horizon, Kirby responds: "None." ”I spent the weekend here in DC and when I talked to people in politics I started saying if I didn’t watch CNBC in the morning the word ‘recession’ wouldn’t be in my vocabulary, just looking at our data,” Kirby adds. “You just can’t see it in our data.” Demand for business travel has "plateaued", Kirby says, qualifying that by saying that it is difficult to define business travel in a hybrid-work landscape where the lines between leisure and business travel are blurred. "Our total revenues are still going up… we're basically back to 2019 profit margins, which was near an all-time high for us." Southwest's Jordan strikes a similarly upbeat tone: "We had record revenues and profits in the second quarter. We had record revenues and terrific profits in the third quarter. We're going to have a great fourth quarter. We want to take that momentum into 2023. Sitting here just a short time after Covid ­– and it's all a plan – but our plan would say that we have a chance to match our pre-pandemic net income in 2023." Straying from what the hard data is telling him toward mere speculation, Jordan says: "Is there a recession on the horizon? Hard to tell. What would the severity be? Hard to tell. What about fuel prices? Hard to tell."

The last newly built Boeing 747 has left the US airframer's widebody production facility in Everett, near Seattle. Boeing says the 747-8 Freighter will be delivered to US cargo carrier Atlas Air in early 2023. Some 1,574 747s have been built, across several model generations, since the aircraft's production began in 1967. It entered service in 1970. Boeing notes the 747's key role in building the company's standing in the aerospace sector. "For more than half a century, tens of thousands of dedicated Boeing employees have designed and built this magnificent airplane that has truly changed the world," states vice-president and general manager 747 and 767 programmes Kim Smith. "We are proud that this plane will continue to fly across the globe for years to come." Atlas, which had placed orders for the final four 747s in 2021, received the last but one aircraft in November and deployed it for logistics group Kuehne & Nagel under a long-term contract. The final 747 will operate under the same deal, Atlas says.

Asiana Airlines has switched its Airbus A350-1000 orders to the long-haul twinjet’s -900 baseline model. Airbus data shows that nine A350-1000 orders previously held by Asiana were added to the Korean carrier’s A350-900 backlog in November, which now stands at 30 units. Some 13 A350-900s have been delivered to Asiana so far. Korean Air is in the process of acquiring Asiana. Korean Air does not operate A350s. Both carrier's fleets include A330ceos and A380s. Other order changes disclosed by Airbus include the cancellation of a Croatia Airlines order for four A320neos placed in 2015. In October, the Balkan carrier revealed an order for six A220-300s and has since committed to lease a further nine of the type as part of a plan to operate a single-type fleet from 2026. The airline’s in-service fleet include A319ceos, A320ceos and De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprops. IAG cancelled orders for six A320neos and two A321neos. However, Airbus in November booked orders from the airline group’s subsidiaries Aer Lingus and British Airways. Two A320neos were ordered by the Irish carrier, and four A320neos, plus two A321neos, by BA. Viva Air cancelled two A320neo orders. Another 20 A320neos are still on order for the Colombian airline. Aviation Capital Group switched one A320neo order to the A321neo.