Rosenberg: Airlines, Travel, China

take a look at pricing trends and profitability in the airline industry today — dealing with excess capacity and union contracts have helped too — and you will see a pretty bullish chart. And it’s being led by ... China! There was a terrific article on this in yesterday’s FT too — Air China is now the largest airline in the world, according to market cap, with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific next in line. This in turn should be a boon for U.S. travel and tourism business, which, as legends like Woody Brock would attest, is where America commands a comparative advantage. Aspen here we come! As an aside, the improvement in airline pricing power has actually gone global — see page 3B of the USA Today, American Starts A Trend: Higher Airfares. In fact, yesterday’s CPI data showed that airline fares on a seasonally adjusted basis has risen at a 14% annual rate over the past three months compared to 1.8% for overall consumer prices.  [today]