Southwest and JetBlue undertake turnarounds – activist investors use different strategies

US airlines Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways face a pivotal year in 2027, which is the deadline for each company to deliver on stated EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) goals inherent in their respective turnaround plans, which were presented to investors this year.

Those plans are fairly straightforward: fleet and network adjustments, product improvements and cost containment. But obviously execution is key for each airline as they face new activist investors that, for now, have adopted vastly different approaches in their roles.

There is also a possibility that Elliott could succeed in its efforts to remove some of Southwest's top executives from their posts, creating some level of uncertainty over the airline's transformation plan coming to fruition.