Nearly a year before their contract was due to become amendable, the Allied Pilots Association formally opened negotiations for a new deal, invoking a rarely used clause buried in their 2023 agreement. The trigger? A blunt declaration from union president Nick Silva, in an August 7 letter to CEO Robert Isom, that the airline "cannot agree that implementation is sufficient." Translation: you didn't finish what you promised us last time, so we're coming back to the table now. T

Boeing has cleared one of the most stubborn hurdles in its long climb back from crisis, winning a federal type certificate for the 737 MAX 7, the smallest member of its best-selling jet family, roughly seven years later than the planemaker once promised. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the certificate on August 3, formally clearing the aircraft to enter commercial service. The approval lands years behind schedule, having been repeatedly delayed by the fallout from

The most consequential railroad deal in a generation cleared a critical procedural hurdle this week, as federal regulators revived their review of Union Pacific's $85 billion takeover of Norfolk Southern, a combination that would create the first true coast-to-coast single-line railroad in United States history. The Surface Transportation Board announced it had lifted the proceeding out of abeyance and set a firm timetable for weighing the merger, after the two carriers submi

American Airlines is doubling down on premium travel, unveiling plans to sharply expand high-end seating and reinstall seatback entertainment screens across its narrowbody fleet — a strategic reversal that underscores how the battle for the industry's most lucrative passengers is reshaping the flying experience. Under the plan, announced in recent weeks, the carrier will lift premium seats from roughly 25 percent to 40 percent of narrowbody departure seats over the coming yea

A liquefied petroleum gas tanker will pay a record $5.3m to transit the Panama Canal on 1 September, the second record in a fortnight, as drought measures and Middle East diversions collide at the chokepoint that carries US Gulf energy exports to Asia. South Korea's SK Gas agreed the sum in an auction this week for a northbound slot for the G. Spirit, Bloomberg reported, beating the $4.6m paid on 14 August by another Korean-controlled vessel. Before February the median auctio

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance released full results this week from its three-day International Roadcheck blitz, and the reasons drivers are being pulled off the road have shifted markedly in a single year. Inspectors conducted 54,575 inspections across the US, Canada and Mexico between 12 and 14 May, placing 10,350 vehicles (19 per cent) and 3,184 drivers (5.8 per cent) out of service. Most passed, and 17,680 vehicles earned a CVSA decal for a clean inspection. But t

Amtrak will suspend rail service between Washington Union Station and Virginia for nine days in October, closing the junction that routes every train heading south out of the capital so crews can replace switches that currently force trains to crawl through at 10 mph. The outage, which Amtrak is calling "Pause for Progress", begins after the last train on Friday 16 October and runs until service resumes on the morning of Monday 26 October. The target is A-Interlocking, the tr

United Airlines announced the largest international expansion in its history on Tuesday, adding 10 new destinations across Europe and Asia for 2027 and revealing for the first time where its new Airbus A321XLR will fly. The new cities are Okinawa, Toulouse, Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Olbia, Catania, Ibiza, Valencia, Marseille and Terceira in the Azores. Eight of them are served nonstop by no other US carrier. Newark takes the bulk of the additions with eight new European routes,

While trucking argues about tariffs and shipping worries about Panama, America's railroads are having the best year almost nobody is talking about. Association of American Railroads data for the week ending 15 August put total US traffic at 525,099 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4 per cent year on year. Through 32 weeks, carloads are up 2.7 per cent and intermodal is up 3.8 per cent, with the combined total 3.3 per cent ahead of 2025. Eight of ten carload categories gain

Cross-border carriers spent last week believing a deal was close. By Monday they were watching their share prices fall. Talks between the US and Canada collapsed late on Friday, and among the sticking points, according to reporting from Bloomberg, Reuters and Politico, were tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Negotiators had been working toward cutting the standard auto tariff to 15 per cent from 25; Canada wanted that relief extended to Class 3 through 8 trucks and d

Ten years after American Airlines pushed him out and United hired him the same day, Scott Kirby is still competing against his old employer in the market that matters most. This time he intends to win New York. In an interview with CNBC published over the weekend, the United chief executive said the carrier expects to return to JFK through its Blue Sky partnership with JetBlue as early as next year, and that he wants a meaningfully larger footprint than a codeshare would deli

In May, the Panama Canal Authority told Reuters it had no plans to limit transits this year. As recently as 5 August it repeated that draft adjustments would leave daily crossings untouched. On Thursday it reversed course, capping transits at 34 a day from early September and 32 from the 15th, down from the roughly 35 to 36 the canal has been averaging since June and a normal capacity nearer 40. The trigger is rain that never came. Cumulative rainfall across the canal watersh

American shippers hoping the summer's freight rate fever would break by autumn received a cold dose of reality this week. Fresh market data published Wednesday showed spot rates continuing their seasonal slide from the July 4 peak, down more than 17 per cent over four to five straight weeks, yet still sitting roughly 50 per cent above year-ago levels. The load-to-truck ratio eased fractionally to 18.62, but that compares with 10.34 a year earlier. This is not a market cooling

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern got the news they had been waiting for on Tuesday, wrapped in a warning they had been dreading. The Surface Transportation Board lifted the hold it placed on its review of their $85 billion merger in late May, restarting the process that would create America's first modern coast-to-coast freight railroad and reduce the six remaining Class I carriers to five. The board was quick to stress that resuming the review is not the same as blessing t

For nearly a decade, American Airlines told passengers their phones were the entertainment system. This week it admitted the strategy had run its course. The Fort Worth carrier announced on Tuesday that it will install seatback screens at every seat across its narrowbody fleet, reversing a device-only policy dating back almost ten years and aligning itself with Delta and United, both of which kept screens on much of their fleets. New Airbus and Boeing deliveries will arrive f

The longest-running takeover saga in American shipping ended not with a handshake but a parting shot. Diana Shipping withdrew its offer for Genco Shipping & Trading on 14 August, abandoning a nine-month pursuit of the largest US-headquartered drybulk owner after what the Greek suitor branded "outrageous" demands from Genco's board. The numbers tell the story of how far apart the two sides remained. Diana's final offer, adjusted for Genco's recent dividend, comprised $24.80 in

Delta Air Lines has once again been voted the preferred airline in the USA and Canada, holding off United and American in AirlineRatings.com's 2026 Flyers' Choice Awards. The result is a repeat. Delta topped the same category last year, and passengers evidently saw no reason to change their minds. United finished second and American third, giving the big three U.S. carriers a clean sweep of the regional podium. An award decided by passengers, not judges That distinction matte

The most consequential number in American freight this quarter did not come from a railroad boardroom. It came from shippers voting with their cargo, and the vote was for rail. Railroads hauled a record number of domestic containers in the second quarter, as shippers banked some of the largest savings against trucking in the decade-long history of the Journal of Commerce's Intermodal Savings Index. In the first quarter the average saving of moving a spot-market load by interm

The people stealing freight off American highways are stealing less of it and making far more money, and that shift tells you the crime has changed hands. Verisk CargoNet's second-quarter analysis, released this month, recorded 677 cargo theft incidents across the US and Canada, down 26 per cent from a year earlier and 14 per cent from the first quarter. Yet estimated losses more than doubled over the same period, reaching $304.6 million against $135.7 million a year ago. The

Nearly two years after Houthi attacks emptied the Red Sea of container ships, the traffic is trickling back, and every returning vessel brings the industry's oversupply reckoning a little closer. This week Maersk routed another service back through the Suez Canal, its fourth to switch since early July, even as nine of its services continue the long detour around Africa. The move came as one of CMA CGM's largest ships, with capacity for 24,000 containers, made the first southb