{"podcast":{"title":"Skift Daily Briefing","slug":"skift-daily-briefing-15922","podcast_index_feed_id":15922,"rss_url":"https://api.spokenlayer.com/feed/channel/skift-multi-ext/3c9929b72538c12bd92ac6762f8d798b9d4e8cdca7692ea74f466061d01816cb","website_url":"https://skift.com/skift-travel-podcasts/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/41590c40-b9bb-11ed-ba38-d769e7249445/image/c4acd533fb80025ef4019cb84867f423.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Skift","episode_count":1208,"summary":"Everything you need to know about the business of travel today. Each episode covers new travel stories from Skift's editorial team. Listen to the latest developments at hotels, airlines, destinations, online booking sites, and more. Published Tuesday through Friday by 5am ET. For ongoing coverage, please visit Skift.com/news.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-11T18:21:59.163743+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/skift-daily-briefing-15922"},"episode":{"title":"United Still Wants American. The Airline Industry Is Bleeding.","slug":"united-still-wants-american-the-airline-industry-is-bleeding","published_at":"2026-06-09T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/skift-daily-briefing-15922/united-still-wants-american-the-airline-industry-is-bleeding","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/skift-daily-briefing-15922","url":"https://skift.com/skift-travel-podcasts/","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/SKIFT8349208907.mp3","summary":"Airline Profits Just Got Cut in Half — and United Still Wants to Buy American The global airline industry takes a brutal hit as profits are slashed nearly in half, global travel growth turns negative for the first time this year, and United's CEO is still publicly chasing a merger American keeps refusing. On today's Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why the Iran war has upended what was supposed to be a strong year for airlines and left the Middle East as the only region posting an outright loss, what it means that global travel momentum has quietly flipped negative for the first time in 2026, and why Scott Kirby keeps the American Airlines merger idea alive even as American keeps saying no. Articles Referenced: Honorable Mention: @AskAConcierge on IG Middle East Airlines Face $4.3 Billion Loss — the Only Region in the Red Global Travel Growth Has Turned Negative for the First Time This Year United CEO Still Wants a Merger With American Connect with Skift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/ WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/skiftnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social X: https://twitter.com/skift Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.","meta_description":"Airline Profits Just Got Cut in Half — and United Still Wants to Buy American The global airline industry takes a brutal hit as profits are slashed nearly…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":365,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/skift-daily-briefing-15922/episodes/united-still-wants-american-the-airline-industry-is-bleeding/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/skift-daily-briefing-15922/united-still-wants-american-the-airline-industry-is-bleeding.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}