Hong Kong, Nov. 20 -- As the year comes to a close, several challenges persist for Asia-Pacific carriers that are peculiar to the region.
Top of the list are ways to counteract the negative impact of the Sino/U.S. trade war on airline profitability.
There is some optimism the global economic giants will reach a partial solution to their trade conflict in coming weeks. In the meantime, the present stand-off has inflicted plenty of economic pain on the air freight business, a major contributor to the profits of several Asia-Pacific carriers. A separate political dispute between Japan and Korea has contracted passenger numbers at airlines which earn significant income from their networks across North Asia.
Also critical to the operations of...