Asian airlines are charting the right course

IF 2016 hasn't been your favourite year, you're in good company. The year that brought us Zika and the loss of David Bowie and Prince on the one hand, and some major political changes on the other, has been disruptive to say the least.

The airline industry has always been intimately familiar with volatility and disruption, especially so here in the Asia-Pacific, so 2016 in contrast has been a relatively good year for most. The collapse in oil prices has stimulated traffic growth and boosted profits for many airlines, but as Capa's executive chairman Peter Harbison warned at the recent Asia Aviation Summit in Singapore, in a strong wind even turkeys can fly. And good weather doesn't last forever.

Fuel prices are expected to start ticking upwards in 2017 and competition from low-cost airlines, gulf carriers and (increasingly) Chinese airlines will only continue to intensify. After all, the downside of the high growth in the Asia-Pacific is that everyone wants a slice of the pie.