The Saudis have managed to come through with a double win. Following the production cuts agreed to by OPEC members, the Saudis were able to work with Russia and other non-OPEC producers to get further cuts in production pushed through . These cuts are likely to pump up oil prices even higher. That’s going to be good for oil companies of course, but it threatens to upend a resurgent sector; the airlines. The 558,000 bpd in cuts by non-OPEC members are only going to exacerbate the recent 30 percent surge in jet fuel costs. For the U.S. airline sector, these price increases will dampen a recent bout of increased profitability. U.S. airlines should be able to handle the turmoil though – the sector has consolidated, updated their fleets, crammed more seats into each plane, and generally improved operations. The result of all this is stronger profitability and greater capacity […]