Category: 3. Business

The BTC Bull Token presale is in its final stretch, with less than 48 hours left for buyers to join at discounted rates before token claiming goes live. The presale has already raised over $8 million, showing strong interest in this new project.

Many believe this token could take off this month as Bitcoin edges closer to new all-time highs. Positive signs across macroeconomic factors, including an increase in the global money supply, the likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, and growing talk of Bitcoin adoption in national reserves and by companies, have investors watching the crypto space closely.

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.

Story Continues

HANGZHOU – It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and dozens of people sat in the grass around a backyard stage where aspiring founders of tech startups talked about their ideas.

People in the crowd slouched over laptops, vaping and drinking strawberry Frappuccinos. A drone buzzed overhead. Inside the house, investors took pitches in the kitchen.

It looked like Silicon Valley, but it was Liangzhu, a quiet suburb of the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, which is a hot spot for entrepreneurs and tech talent lured by low rents and proximity to tech companies like Alibaba and DeepSeek.

“People come here to explore their own possibilities,” said Mr Felix Tao, 36, a former Facebook and Alibaba employee who hosted the event.

Virtually all of those possibilities involve artificial intelligence. As China faces off with the United States over tech primacy, Hangzhou has become the center of China’s AI frenzy.

A decade ago, the provincial and local governments started offering subsidies and tax breaks to new companies in Hangzhou, a policy that has helped incubate hundreds of startups. On weekends, people fly in from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to hire programmers.

Lately, many of them have ended up in Mr Tao’s backyard. He helped found an AI research lab at Alibaba before leaving to start his own company, Mindverse, in 2022.

Now Mr Tao’s home is a hub for coders who have settled in Liangzhu, many in their 20s and 30s. They call themselves “villagers,” writing code in coffee shops during the day and gaming together at night, hoping to harness AI to create their own companies.

Hangzhou has already birthed tech powerhouses, not only Alibaba and DeepSeek but also NetEase and Hikvision.

In January,

DeepSeek shook the tech world

when it released an AI system that it said it had made for a small fraction of the cost that Silicon Valley companies had spent on their own.

Since then, systems made by DeepSeek and Alibaba have ranked among the top-performing open source AI models in the world, meaning they are available for anyone to build on. Graduates from Hangzhou’s Zhejiang University, where DeepSeek’s founder studied, have become sought-after employees at Chinese tech companies.

Chinese media closely followed the poaching of a core member of DeepSeek’s team by the electronics company Xiaomi. In Liangzhu, many engineers said they were killing time until they could create their own startups, waiting out noncompete agreements they had signed at bigger companies like ByteDance.

DeepSeek is one of six AI and robotics startups from the city that Chinese media calls the “six tigers of Hangzhou”.

In 2024, one of the six, Game Science, released China’s first big-budget video game to become a global hit, Black Myth: Wukong. Another firm, Unitree, grabbed public attention in January when its robots danced onstage during the Chinese state broadcaster’s televised annual spring gala.

This spring, Mr Mingming Zhu, the founder of Rokid, a Hangzhou startup that makes AI-enabled eyeglasses, invited the six founders to his home for dinner.

It was the first time they had all met in person, Mr Zhu said. Like him, most of the six had studied at Zhejiang University or worked at Alibaba.

“When we started, we were small fish,” Mr Zhu said. “But even then, the government helped out.” He said government officials had helped him connect with Rokid’s earliest investors, including Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba.

But some said the government support for Hangzhou’s tech scene had scared off some investors. Several company founders, who asked not to be named so they could discuss sensitive topics, said it was difficult for them to attract funds from foreign venture capital firms, frustrating their ambitions to grow outside China.

The nightmare situation, they said, would be to end up like ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, whose executives have been

questioned before Congress

about the company’s ties to the Chinese government.

Founders described choosing between two paths for their companies’ growth: Take government funding and tailor their product to the Chinese market, or raise enough money on their own to set up offices in a country like Singapore to pitch foreign investors. For most, the first was the only feasible option.

Another uncertainty is access to the advanced computer chips that power artificial intelligence systems. Washington has spent years trying to prevent Chinese companies from buying these chips, and Chinese companies like Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation are racing to produce their own.

So far, the Chinese-made chips work well enough to help companies like ByteDance provide some of their AI services in China. Many Chinese companies have created stockpiles of Nvidia chips despite Washington’s controls. But it is not clear how long that supply will last, or how quickly China’s chipmakers can catch up to their American counterparts.

A seemingly inescapable concept in Hangzhou is “agentic AI”, the idea that an artificial intelligence system could be directed to act on its own.

Mr Qian Roy, another Hangzhou entrepreneur, has developed an AI-enabled digital companion for young people that responds to their moods based on information from the Myers-Briggs personality test, which is popular among young people in China.

His team programmed his app, All Time, using publicly available AI systems, including those made by DeepSeek, Alibaba and Anthropic, an American startup.

Mindverse, the company cofounded by Mr Tao, who hosted the backyard event, is working on a product that would use AI to help people manage their lives. It can send supportive daily emails to colleagues, for example, or regular text messages to parents reminiscing about family vacations.

“I don’t want the AI to just handle tasks, but to actually give you more mental space so you can unplug,” Mr Tao said.

Many in the crowd in Mr Tao’s backyard said the atmosphere in Hangzhou, set on the banks of a lake that was muse to generations of Chinese poets and painters, fueled their creativity.

Mr Lin Yuanlin started his company, Zeabur, while studying at Zhejiang University. His company provides back-end systems to people who are making apps and websites by “vibecoding”, or using AI tools to program without deep software knowledge.

Liangzhu is the perfect testing ground for his product, Mr Lin said. He can lean over to someone in a coffee shop or wander into a neighbor’s living room and learn what kind of support they need for their startups. Mr Lin found himself going to Liangzhu so often that he moved there.

Liangzhu villagers have been hosting film nights. They had recently gathered to watch The Matrix. Afterward, they decided the movie should be required viewing, Mr Lin said. Its theme – people finding their way out of a vast system controlling society – provided spot-on inspiration.

Aspiring founders in Liangzhu, even those who did not go to top universities, believe they could start the next world-changing tech company, Mr Tao said.

“Many of them are super brave to make a choice to explore their own way, because in China that is not the common way to live your life.” NYTIMES

This regular CAPA – Centre for Aviation report provides a summary of major developments in the aircraft interiors sector, supported by data from the CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database and CAPA News.

This edition covers May-2025 and Jun-2025 and features:

The past decade and what lies ahead for A320 family business class;

Overview of A320 family business class seat suppliers;

A region-by-region view of A320 family business class developments;

+ Latest global interior updates.

Summary

• This regular CAPA – Centre for Aviation report provides a summary of major developments in the aircraft interiors sector, supported by data from the CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database and CAPA News.
• This edition covers May-2025 and Jun-2025 and features:
• The past decade, and what lies ahead for A320 family business class.
• Overview of A320 family business class seat suppliers.
• A region-by-region view of A320 family business class developments.
• Latest global interior updates.

A320-family business class: the past decade and what lies ahead

Etihad Airways recently unveiled full cabin interiors for its upcoming A321LR.

At the front of the cabin are STELIA Opera NA seats, featuring sliding doors, flat beds, a 20-inch 4K Inflight entertainment screen with bluetooth audio pairing, and wireless charging.

The Abu Dhabi-based airline joined the Business Plus trend by not only having a differentiated row 1 offering, but also by going as far as calling it ‘First Suites’.

While JetBlue Airways was the first to bring the Business Plus concept to the A320 family, Etihad is the first to have marketed it as first class. This marks the latest development in the increasingly premium and dynamic role played by the four-decade-old A320 family.

Until the recent decade, the A320 family was rarely treated as a platform to feature premium products such as lie-flat seats. Only American Airlines, British Airways, JetBlue, Qatar Airways and Gulf Air operated small fleets of premium narrowbodies (part of the British Airways premium sub-fleet came via its merger with bmi – British Midland International).

This changed with the introduction of the A321neo.

The graph below shows that the number of A320-family aircraft featuring lie-flat products only truly took off when the A321neo (bright red) entered service in 2018.

Timeline of A320-family passenger aircraft in service with lie-flat business class seats over the past 10 years

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

Through the years – A320-family business class seat suppliers

Premium seating on the A320 family has long been dominated by Collins Aerospace Interior Systems.

Almost half of the A320-family business class cabins in service feature Collins seats.

RECARO Aircraft Seating overtook Safran to become the second largest provider after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The combined market share of these ‘Big 3’ manufacturers has hovered at around 90%, and not changed significantly over the past decade.

Timeline of in-service A320-family passenger aircraft business class seat manufacturer share over the past 10 years

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

Collins Aerospace has maintained its market leader position as the A320-family business class market leader over the past decade, partially due to the successful generational shift from the Millennium platform.

The MiQ began installation on A320 family aircraft in 2016, and has rapidly grown to become the second most popular seat model of the aircraft production group.

Other top models featured in the A320-family business class cabin include the CL4400 and CL4420 from RECARO, and various former Weber models, including the 6810, 6850 and 7070, now manufactured by Safran.

However, looking specifically at new aircraft deliveries, smaller players have been making major inroads.

Deliveries a decade ago were still dominated by the ‘Big 3’ manufacturers, but for recent deliveries they have lost a sizeable chunk of their share to: AVIC Hubei Ali-Jiatai Aircraft Equipment (also known simply as Jiatai), HAECO Cabin Solutions (now part of Zim), Thompson Aero Seating, and STELIA Aerospace.

Jiatai’s market share increase has been nothing short of astronomical. It pushed the manufacturer to be the largest linefit supplier of A320 business class seats for deliveries over the past year.

Thompson Aero Seating and STELIA Aerospace’s rise broadly correlates with deliveries of the A321neo. The two manufacturers, alongside Collins Aerospace, share the A321neo lie-flat market.

Meanwhile, HAECO Cabin Solution’s rise is singlehandedly propped up by its Spirit Airlines’ deliveries.

Market share of business class seats line-fitted on A320-family passenger aircraft delivered over the past year, versus 10 years prior

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

Around the world – regional trends from region to region

CAPA – Centre for Aviation will now present a region-by-region view of A320-family business class developments

Asia – Chinese airlines influence supplier split

We start with Asia, the region with the largest A320-family fleet.

On a high level, A320-family aircraft business class cabins in the region are also dominated by seats from the ‘Big 3’.

It should be noted that Safran has a much smaller share in Asia than globally.

Timeline of Asian in-service A320-family passenger aircraft business class seat manufacturer share over the past 10 years

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

The Collins Aerospace Millennium platform is also the market leader in Asia, thanks to its historical popularity among Chinese airlines.

Approximately 85% of Millennium seats in service on A320s are operated by Chinese airlines: China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines are all Millennium users.

Millennium’s successor, the MiQ, also proved popular among airlines from China. However, in recent years Chinese airlines have made a hard pivot to Jiatai, and its ‘made in China’ solutions for linefit and retrofit activities.

From 2021 China Eastern Airlines and Sichuan Airlines took delivery of A320neos linefitted with AVIC seats. The Xiamen Airlines’ A321neo, China Eastern Airlines’ A321neo, China Southern Airlines’ A321neo and Hainan Airlines’ A320neo followed suit.

This started initially with the Jiatai Kky131/140, and the airlines eventually all shifted towards the JT220B. Over 70% of Chinese A320-family deliveries over the past year feature Jiatai seats.

Collins Aerospace and RECARO dominate installation activities for other parts of Asia.

In India, the Collins Aerospace MiQ platform was selected by Air India as part of its USD400 million aircraft retrofit programme.

The CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database currently tracks 20 legacy Air India A320neos retrofitted. This allows Air India to align its offering better with legacy Vistara aircraft, which also feature the MiQ

In early 2024 Thai Airways International announced an intention to retrofit its narrowbody aircraft. The CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database tracks that 19 A320s have now added 12 RECARO R5 business seats.

North America – Collins Aerospace and Safran lead the way

In the North American market there has been Collins Aerospace and Safran broadly splitting 80% of the market. Both have maintained their respective shares in the region over the past decade.

Collins Aerospace is primarily used by American Airlines and Air Canada; Safran is primarily used by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

While Collins Aerospace has maintained its most important North American customers, there is a clear shift in its most popular seat model that marks the supplier’s generational shift

The ‘Spectrum First’ and ‘Millennium’ seat were introduced on A320s at a similar time (1990s). The North American market saw the Spectrum First being Collins Aerospace’s most popular offering. Since 2016, when the MiQ was introduced to the market, MiQ started gaining market share at the expense of Spectrum First.

This was driven by American Airlines retrofitting its A320-family aircraft. In 2019 American Airlines started retrofitting its A321s with ‘Project Oasis’. The Collins Aerospace MiQ replaced older models from Safran, RECARO, and its own equipment.

Timeline of American Airlines in-service A320-family aircraft business class seat manufacturer share over the past 10 years

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

According to the CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database, the Collins Aerospace MiQ is currently featured on 80% of American Airlines’ A320-family aircraft. This is also contributed to by the airline selecting MiQ for most new A320-family deliveries.

Air Canada also embarked on a similar programme from 4Q2023. The CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database tracks that 11 Airbus A321s have now completed retrofit to MiQ, and were re-entered into service.

Europe – Eurobusiness dominates across the region

When it comes to narrowbody business class seat design, the European airlines generally had a completely different approach.

‘Eurobusiness Class’, offered by British Airways, Lufthansa and Iberia, among others, has the same seat as economy class but with a blocked middle seat.

But some airlines are returning to offer true business class to provide more comfort for their premium passengers.

In May-2025 Eurowings announced a plan to introduce a new business class product on its medium haul routes. The ‘Geven Comoda’ seat will feature on the airline’s A320neo from Nov-2025.

For more details, refer to previous CAPA – Centre for Aviation analysis: Eurowings gets new premium seat before other Lufthansa Group airlines.

It is worth noting that Luxair was the first European airlines to reintroduce a business class seat on a narrowbody aircraft in recent years.

In Dec-2022 the airline retrofitted one of its all-economy Boeing 737s by adding 12 reclining business seats, and another 737 MAX 8 was also retrofitted with a dual-class configuration in 2024.

However, the CAPA Aircraft Interiors Database records that the first retrofitted 737 has quietly switched back to single-class configuration recently – it is unsure whether the airline will continue the retrofitting programme.

Middle East – living with a premium reputation

Middle Eastern airlines have long enjoyed a premium reputation.

As previously mentioned, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways were among the early adapters of narrowbodies with lie-flat seats.

Gulf Air first introduced a lie-flat bed seat on its A321 in 2012, and over the years the Bahrain-based airline has opted to maintain its sub-fleet of premium narrowbodies.

Recent A321LR deliveries resulted in the Collins ‘Aerospace Diamond’ seat being installed, while denser aircraft feature the ‘Stelia Celeste’.

Qatar Airways followed suit in 2014, becoming one of the first to install the Collins Aerospace Diamond on a narrowbody.

While the Diamond platform is currently the most popular A320-family business class seat model in the region, Middle Eastern A320-family aircraft still mostly feature more conventional recliner business class seats.

The CL4420 and Millenium seats dominated the market until 2019: the subsequent decline in market share is due to a combination of new fleet decisions (for example – Etihad Airways), and/or seat replacement (for example – Saudia).

Timeline of Middle Eastern in-service A320-family aircraft business class seat model share over the past 10 years

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

Lie-flat seats and the future trend

The number of A320 fleets with lie-flat seats has tripled over the past decade.

However, among all A320-family aircraft with reclining business class seats installed, only 6% of the aircraft are equipped with lie-flat seats currently.

Collins ‘Aerospace Diamond’ and Thompson ‘Vantage’ are the most popular models, followed by Vantage ‘SOLO’ and ‘Stelia Elysium’.

Timeline of in-service A320-family aircraft lie-flat business class seat model share over the past 10 years

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Aircraft Interiors Database.

Although lie-flat seats currently only have a small market share, this is a trend CAPA expects to continue rising.

In Apr-2024 Aegean Airlines announced that four of its upcoming A321neos would feature lie-flat business class seats, to serve the non-EU market.

Riyadh Air in Nov-2024 confirmed that its upcoming A321neo would feature Collins Aerospace APEX seats, and the same lie-flat seat model can be found on the airline’s current 787-9 aircraft.

China Southern Airlines announced that its future A321neo business class cabin would feature the Collins Aerospace Diamond seat.

In Mar-2025 Thai Airways International announced that its A321neos on order would be delivered with Thompson Aero Seating Vantage lie-flat business class seats.

In May-2025 Kuwait Airways took delivery of its first of nine A321neo aircraft, featuring 2-2 Stelia Elysium lie-flat seats.

A321XLR arrival will unlock more premium products to support longer missions

Meanwhile, the late-2024 service entry of the A321XLR is expected to further unlock more premium products on the A320 family.

A321XLR launch customers, Iberia and Aer Lingus, both opted for Thompson Aero Seating lie-flat seats, likely as part of the larger IAG decision.

Both Air Canada and Saudia confirmed that 1-1 lie-flat seats would be installed on their forthcoming A321XLRs.

As the third A321XLR operator, American Airlines rolled out more configuration details for its aircraft in Mar-2025: its A321XLRs will not only feature 20 Collins Aerospace Aurora lie-flat seats with privacy doors, but also 12 reclining premium economy seats; the latter are what other airlines are treating as standard business class seats.

Other latest global interior news

OEM

• Greenerwave and Safran partner to develop new Ka-band terminal.

Asia Pacific

Americas

Europe, Middle East and Africa

A by-product of the drop in Canada-US transborder demand, after shifts in US trade policy, was the decision by Canadian airlines to redeploy some capacity back into the domestic market.

A lingering question from the reallocation of capacity is whether there’s a danger of a supply-demand imbalance occurring in Canada’s domestic market.

For now, Canadian airlines seem optimistic that a rational marketplace will ensue, as they navigate the northern summer high season.

Summary

• Air Canada foresees a stable domestic environment in 2Q2025 and 3Q2025.
• Porter Airlines sees a shift among Canadians – to local travel.
• Flair Airlines believes that shifts by Canadian airlines from US transborder routes will remain in place for the near future.
• WestJet cancels some transborder routes, and uses new domestic flights to feed its European network.
• Canadian operators are waiting to see if transborder demand changes are going to be permanent.

Air Canada foresees a stable domestic market as its network diversification provides competitive shield

Canada’s airlines had to quickly reorient some US transborder capacity into domestic and other warm-weather markets during 1Q2025, after tariff threats by the US and discussions about Canada becoming the 51st state dampened demand for Canadian point-of-sale.

Air Canada executives told analysts and investors in May-2025 that it was experiencing booking declines on point-to-point transborder routes in the low teens, on average, for the next six months.

See the related CAPA – Centre for Aviation report: Air Canada’s network diversification efforts create a buffer against falling US demand

But the company’s management also reported that Canada’s domestic market looked stable in terms of passenger growth for the second and third quarters of 2025, and Air Canada’s own domestic capacity growth would remain in the single digits.

Data from CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG show that Canada’s overall domestic seats are forecast to grow 7% year-over-year for the week of 21-Jul-2025.

Canada’s weekly total domestic seats, from 2020 to late Nov-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG.

*These values are at least partly predictive up to 6 months from 16-Jun-2025 and may be subject to change.

Porter sees strong domestic demand in Canada for busy northern summer period

Before the US trade upheaval, the US transborder market played a key role in Porter Airlines’ expansion with its growing Embraer 195-E2 fleet.

But the airline joined its Canadian counterparts in opting to reallocate some of its US capacity back into Canada.

Earlier in 2025 Porter explained that domestic operations during the peak summer season in the northern hemisphere would represent 80% of its network, versus previous plans of 75%. However, the airline did state that its presence in the US market should still be 25% larger year-over-year for the northern summer time frame.

“We’re allocating quite a bit more of that capacity in Canada…we feel the summer season is already the strongest domestically, and we feel this summer will be even stronger as a result of Canadians wanting to travel locally”, Porter CFO Robert Palmer told CAPA TV during the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas in Apr-2025.

Porter Airlines, EVP & CFO, Rob Palmer, at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2025

Source: CAPA TV.

He added that those travellers now prefer to travel cross-country to visit destinations that include Vancouver and Halifax, “instead of going someplace in the US”.

Porter has recently launched a slew of new routes in Canada, including Hamilton to Vancouver and Halifax. It’s the lone airline on the Hamilton-Halifax and Ottawa to Victoria route pairings.

WestJet has pulled out of some of Porter’s new routes, including Hamilton-Halifax and Toronto-Deer Lake, as it places more emphasis on its hub in Calgary.

Competitor two-way seats on some of Porter Airlines’ new domestic routes, as of mid-Jun-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG.

Domestic routes represented nearly 76% of Porter’s departing frequencies in mid-Jun-2025, and when Mr Palmer spoke with CAPA TV in Apr-2025 he explained that Porter had recorded a reduction in bookings to popular US destinations over the previous six weeks.

Porter Airlines: domestic versus international departing frequencies, as of mid-Jun-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG.

The Canadian ULCC Flair caps growth for 2025, and believes transborder shifts will remain in place until 2026

Flair Airlines’ CEO Maciej Wilk told attendees at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas conference in Apr-2025 that the airline had no plans to add aircraft to its fleet this year, noting “ironically, this is good news right now”.

The airline operates 18 Boeing 737-8s and two 737-800s, according to the CAPA – Centre for Aviation Fleet Database.

Flair Airlines’ fleet summary as of mid-Jun-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation Fleet Database.

He also said that schedule changes implemented by Canadian airlines in the previous weeks would likely remain intact for the foreseeable future, adding that operators would likely reassess again when planning begins for summer 2026.

At the same time, Mr Wilk also struck a cautionary note, explaining that shifting transborder capacity back into Canada due to decreased demand “doesn’t solve the issue[,] because everybody’s doing the same”.

He noted that the “…billion dollar question is whether this is something that will continue for the next 3-4 years, or emotions will cool down and the summer of 2026 will be more or less back to normal”.

As it navigates shifting demand patterns, Flair’s domestic departing frequencies are nearly 88% – the highest among Canada’s airlines.

But as an ultra-low cost airline, Flair’s focus is domestic and near international service.

Flair Airlines’ domestic versus international departing frequencies, as of mid-Jun-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG.

WestJet cuts US routes and adds Canadian pairing to funnel passengers to Europe

Back in Feb-2025 WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech told CTV News that the tariff announcements had resulted in a significant drop-off in transborder sales – approximately 25%.

In May-2025 Aviation Week Network reported that the airline was suspending nine transborder routes for parts of the summer, citing declining demand for travel to the US, amid growing tensions between the neighbouring countries.

An airline spokesperson explained to the publication that WestJet had “seen an increase in demand for domestic travel, specifically between Eastern and Western Canada,” and would add capacity on domestic transcontinental routes.

Some of WestJet’s new domestic services set to debut in late Jun-2025 and early Jul-2025 include Winnipeg-St John’s, and Halifax to Saskatoon and Regina.

WestJet concluded that those routes would offer connections to its European network from Canada’s east coast; the airline operates Boeing 737-8s from St John’s to Dublin, London Gatwick and Paris and from Halifax to Amsterdam and Dublin.

Additionally, WestJet bases its seven 787-9s at its Calgary hub, operating flights to Tokyo Narita, Seoul, Barcelona, Dublin, Edinburgh and Paris.

WestJet Group: fleet summary, as of mid-Jun-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG.

WestJet’s long haul flights also provide the airline some additional network flex, as its domestic/international departing frequency split is 70%-30%.

WestJet: domestic versus international departing frequencies as of mid-Jun-2025

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation and OAG.

What does the future hold for US-Canada dynamics in 2026 and beyond?

Canada’s airlines arguably moved quickly to disperse capacity slated for US transborder routes elsewhere.

For now, it seems as if the addition of some capacity back into the domestic Canadian market is not creating an irrational marketplace; but more clarity should emerge as the busy summer season unfolds.

All of Canada’s airlines are waiting to see if this is a permanent shift, or if a return to normal trends is in store for 2026.

Story Continues

Shift to cloud, AI and global restructuring cited

Not a full exit, says Ministry of IT

Experts say closure reflects global SaaS shift

Former Microsoft head: ‘This is more than a corporate exit’

Former President Arif Alvi calls it a ‘troubling sign’

Multinationals continue to scale back in Pakistan

Careem’s exit follows Uber’s earlier withdrawal

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Retail traders “buying the dip” in US stocks this year have racked up the biggest profits since the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis, helping to fuel a rally that has pushed Wall Street equities to record highs.

Individual investors have poured a record $155bn into US stocks and exchange traded funds during 2025, according to data provider VandaTrack, surpassing the meme-stock boom of 2021.

They continued to buy even as President Donald Trump’s blitz of tariffs on US trading partners sent stock markets tumbling in April — and their faith in the time-honoured strategy of piling in after stocks fall in anticipation of a rebound has paid off.

The Nasdaq 100 index of large-cap US technology stocks has risen 7.8 per cent this year. But an investor who bought the index only when it had fallen during the previous trading session would have locked in a cumulative return of 31 per cent over the same period, according to analysis by the Bank of America. 

“Pops and drops will occur . . . but the dip-buying belief has become the new religion,” said Mike Zigmont, co-head of trading and research at Visdom Investment Group.

The habit of buying into stock weakness has become increasingly hard-wired into investors in the decade and a half of buoyant US markets that followed the 2008-09 global financial crisis, during which downturns have tended to be shortlived.

This year’s returns are the best for the BoA’s hypothetical dip-buying model at this stage of the year since early 2020, and the second best return in data going back to 1985. 

Vanda’s senior vice-president of research Marco Iachini said “retail investors remain a major force in the market” and that their “dip-buying bias is fully intact”.

The rebound in US stocks — which hit fresh all-time highs last week even as the dollar and US Treasuries remain under pressure — has been “powered by a buy-the-dip dynamic that by some metrics has been even stronger than that seen in the latter stages of the 90s tech bubble,” said BofA equity analyst Vittoria Volta. 

Professional investors have eyed the rally with caution due to lingering concerns over the impact of Trump’s landmark tax and spending bill on America’s national debt and the potential hit to US economic growth from his tariffs. 

Deutsche Bank strategists said this week that there had been “few signs of strong bullish sentiment and risk appetite” among institutional investors since their demand peaked in the first few months of this year.

But dip-buyers are playing a risky game by opting not to cash out when prices surge, according to Rob Arnott, chair of asset management group Research Affiliates.

“We have a president who likes to surprise people, who likes to keep people off balance, to confuse his adversaries. All of this is a recipe for a higher volatility regime, and higher volatility means buying low and selling high is more profitable than in trending markets with stable policy,” Arnott said.

“Dip-buying works brilliantly until it doesn’t,” he added. “When you have a meltdown, it’s a quick path to deep regret.”