Leeham News and Analysis
Leeham News and Analysis is an aviation news and analysis service published in Issaquah, Washington, in the United States, by Leeham Company. Known to readers as LNA, it covers commercial aircraft programmes, airframe and engine manufacturers, airlines and their fleet decisions, the aerospace supply chain and maintenance, repair and overhaul strategy, primarily for industry subscribers. Its tagline, that there is more to real news than a news release, captures its editorial proposition: long-form reporting and analysis that tests manufacturer and airline claims against economics, engineering and market history, rather than simply repeating announcements.
Overview and audience
Leeham News and Analysis focuses on commercial aviation, specialising in airframe and engine original equipment manufacturers, the supply chain and future flight concepts in commercial aviation. Its readers include executives, analysts, investors, lessors, suppliers and journalists who need to understand decisions such as whether an airline will order one aircraft family over another, whether a manufacturer can raise production rates profitably, or how an engine problem affects fleet planning. Much of its detailed material is published on a subscription basis, with articles marked as requiring a subscription, while headlines, excerpts and some commentary are visible publicly and are widely linked by other aviation outlets.
The service is published online at leehamnews.com and has built an archive of thousands of articles organised by topic, aircraft programme, company and author. Categories visible in its archive range from Airbus and Boeing programme coverage to new midmarket aircraft studies, sustainable air transport and future aircraft concepts. That depth of archive is part of the product: a subscriber researching a programme can follow LNA's coverage of it across many years of orders, delays, redesigns and management changes.
Founder and origins
LNA was created in 1999 by Scott Hamilton, who also created Leeham Co. LLC, a consulting company, in the same year. Hamilton began his career in commercial aviation in 1979 with the original Midway Airlines, the first new airline certificated as part of the move toward deregulation in the United States. After working for several new-entrant airlines, he became an airliner reporter and editor for trade magazines. In 1989 he co-founded Commercial Aviation Report, Commercial Aviation Events and, later, Commercial Aviation Value Report. That combination of airline employment, trade journalism and consulting preceded the launch of Leeham News and Analysis as an online, subscription-based analytical newsletter.
Hamilton served as the publication's founder and editor for more than two and a half decades and became its best-known byline, writing news reports, analysis and the recurring Pontifications column, in which he commented on industry developments and, at times, on the publication itself. He is also the author of books on commercial aviation, including Air Wars, about the global competition between Airbus and Boeing, and a later volume of personal and industry history, 50 Years in Commercial Aviation, published in 2026. Biographical material for Air Wars described Hamilton's career as spanning airline work, trade magazine reporting and editing, and the consulting and news businesses he founded, a background reflected in LNA's mix of reporting, financial analysis and institutional memory.
Editorial approach
LNA distinguishes between straight news reporting, analysis labelled as such, opinion columns and technical series. Its coverage examines aircraft technology, economics, fleet planning, maintenance, repair and overhaul strategy and market trends. Articles frequently work through the numbers behind a claim: the range and payload of an aircraft on a specific route, the operating cost per seat of competing types, the effect of a production rate on a manufacturer's cash flow, or the credibility of a delivery schedule. Where a story is based on a company announcement, LNA typically adds the context a press release omits, such as previous delays, competing products or unresolved certification issues.
A characteristic feature is the use of Leeham's Aircraft Performance and Cost Model to compare aircraft on an apples-to-apples basis. In one multi-part series, for example, LNA compared the Airbus A321XLR with the Boeing 757 to assess how far the newer Airbus type could replace the older Boeing aircraft on longer routes, examining capacity, range, cargo capability and then operating costs using the model. The summary concluded that the two types had the same passenger capacity, that the 757 had larger cargo capacity, that its range could compete with the A321LR but not the XLR, and that both Airbus variants beat the 757 on operational economics. That style, methodical, comparative and willing to reach a conclusion, is what subscribers pay for.
Contributors and technical analysis
The most prominent contributor alongside Hamilton has been Bjorn Fehrm, Leeham's aeronautical and economic analyst and Hamilton's partner in Leeham Co. Fehrm writes the long-running Bjorn's Corner series, which explains aircraft engineering and economics in sequential, educational instalments. Topics in the series have included aircraft structures and automated layup systems for composite parts, and the state of alternative propulsion aircraft, including electric motors, batteries and the progress of electric and hybrid concepts since the Airbus E-Fan flight in 2014. In 2016 Fehrm was selected to receive the Thulin Silver Medal from Sweden's Aeronautics and Space Technology Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences for his engineering work.
Fehrm's analysis also appears in jointly bylined programme assessments, in which LNA applies its own analysis to manufacturer claims. In June 2026, for instance, LNA reported that Airbus, Boeing and its own analysis cast doubt on the benefits claimed for blended wing body designs, while presenting the explanations offered by companies developing such aircraft. Other contributors have included guest and staff writers covering subjects such as future aircraft opportunities for industry conferences, and regular coverage draws on a network of sources built over decades in the airframe, engine and airline businesses.
Coverage in practice
Recent LNA coverage illustrates its range. It has reported in detail on labour negotiations between Boeing and SPEEA, the union representing Boeing's engineers and technicians, tracking bargaining unit recommendations, membership votes and strike authorisations against the background of Boeing's efforts to stabilise 737 production and its financial recovery. It has covered regulatory decisions such as the Federal Aviation Administration's approval for Boeing to produce additional 777F freighters beyond the original deadline set by international emissions and noise standards, while analysing the complications created by delays to the 777-8F successor programme and by passenger customers seeking delivery priority for the delayed 777-9.
The service also follows future programmes systematically. Its series on the next new aircraft examined a set of thirteen candidate airliners, including a GE, NASA and Boeing hybrid concept, the Airbus ZEROe hydrogen airliner, Boeing's proposed new midmarket aircraft and a new light twin, assessing each one's market, technological challenges and prospects. Coverage of the new midmarket aircraft question, whether either manufacturer will launch a new design in the middle of the market, has been a recurring LNA theme for years, tagged and archived so readers can follow the argument as engine technology and manufacturer strategy evolve.
Relationship with Leeham Company and consulting
Leeham News and Analysis grew out of Leeham Company, and for most of its life the news service and Leeham Consulting were sister businesses under the same ownership. That arrangement gave LNA access to consulting-grade analytical tools, such as its aircraft performance and cost model, while the consulting business benefited from the visibility of the publication. It also required readers to understand the boundary between the two: the news service reported and analysed, while the consultancy advised clients. When ownership of the news service changed in 2025, the companies were explicit that Leeham Co. LLC and Leeham Consulting would remain independently owned and operated, and that Hamilton and Fehrm would remain with both the consultancy and, in editorial roles, with LNA.
Acquisition by AIN Media Group
On 17 June 2025, during the Paris Air Show, AIN Media Group and Leeham Company announced an agreement in principle under which AIN would acquire Leeham News and Analysis. The transaction was completed on 17 July 2025. AIN Media Group is a privately held aviation media company of about fifty years' standing, best known for covering business and corporate aviation and the future flight sector. The companies presented the deal as complementary: AIN's strength in business aviation would be matched with LNA's depth in commercial aviation, and LNA would gain resources to broaden its coverage while continuing to publish under its current brand with its experienced editors, analysts and writers in place and its coverage focus unchanged.
Following completion, AIN and LNA began sharing selected stories, publishing previews of each other's articles with links to the full story on the relevant site, and anticipated further resource-sharing. Hamilton wrote at the time that, for the first time since 1989, he would report to a boss. The acquisition was described by AIN's founder and chairman emeritus, Wilson Leach, as a milestone in expanding AIN as a resource for the global aviation industry, and it was AIN's second acquisition as it built a broader aviation media portfolio.
Leadership transition
In July 2026 LNA announced that Howard Hardee had been named Editor of Leeham News and Analysis by its owner, AIN Media Group, and that founder Scott Hamilton had become editor-at-large. The announcement coincided with the publication of Hamilton's third book and with his stated intention to retire from aviation journalism the following year, by which point he will have spent fifty years affiliated with the commercial aviation business. His recent bylines as editor-at-large have continued to cover major stories, including Boeing labour negotiations and freighter production decisions, in the same detailed style as his earlier editing tenure.
Significance in aviation media
Leeham News and Analysis occupies a specific niche in aviation journalism. It is not a general news wire and it does not compete on breaking news speed with large news organisations. Its value lies in depth, memory and willingness to publish analysis that manufacturers or airlines may find uncomfortable, supported by modelling and by sources developed over decades. For nearly two decades before the AIN acquisition, and continuing since, it has been described as a trusted authority on aircraft programmes and airline economics, and its assessments are routinely cited or contested by other aviation publications, which is itself a measure of influence.
Based in Issaquah, Washington, within the greater Seattle aviation region historically centred on Boeing, but covering Airbus and the global industry with equal attention, LNA demonstrates how a small subscription publication can sustain a durable position in a specialised market. Its combination of news, cost modelling, engineering explanation and commentary, now backed by a larger aviation media group, remains the service described in this directory.
