That wince you just made while researching travel options? Get used to it.

Why it matters: Soaring jet fuel prices are accelerating changes across the airline industry, showing up in higher fares, premium-heavy cabins and fewer flight options for travelers.

✈️ State of play: All of the major airlines are feeling the pain:

• American Airlines reported today that its fuel bill jumped nearly 70% in the third quarter from a year ago, adding $1.9 billion in costs and undercutting its revenue growth.
• Southwest and United Airlines both slashed their profit forecasts this week on higher fuel costs.
• And Delta Air Lines expects its fuel bill this year to come in $6 billion above last year's.

💸 The impact: To protect their bottom lines, airlines are raising fares and turning to more premium seats to squeeze more revenue out of their flights.

The big picture: Airline executives see these changes — many of which were already underway — as a necessary new normal, not just a temporary response to fuel prices.

• United CEO Scott Kirby told investors yesterday that the industry's underlying costs — including airport fees, maintenance and engines — have increased so much in recent years that airlines must fundamentally change their economics.

🏷️ Zoom in: Executives echoed Delta CEO Ed Bastian's comments on pricing from earlier in the month, suggesting this week that the higher fares and other changes to protect profitability are likely to remain in place even after jet fuel prices ease.

• And airlines are becoming increasingly reluctant to operate flights that don't make money — potentially leaving travelers with fewer options.
• United's Kirby predicted that trend will continue across the industry. "One golden rule: Don't fly places that lose money," he said on the company's earnings call. "There's going to be less loss-making flying," he predicted.

The bottom line: Fuel prices may eventually come back down. Don't count on airfares following.

Go deeper

Procter & Gamble shares ticked up today as the consumer products giant showed it could walk the tightrope between competitive pricing and profitability, Axios' Pete Gannon writes.

• The maker of Tide, Charmin and Pampers reported 2.4% volume growth in the September quarter, led by its fabric and home care products.
• Organic revenue rose 4% in the quarter, the fastest growth in three years, per Bloomberg.

🏷️ Zoom out: P&G has been taking a selective approach to price increases in a bid to win over cost-conscious consumers — even while it faces increasing cost headwinds.

• That appears to be paying off, as the volume gains suggest.

🗣️ What we're watching: P&G isn't ruling out price increases to offset soaring costs, but executives are wary of jeopardizing sales growth.

• It's a "very fragile balance that we want to make sure we don't compromise on," P&G CFO Andre Schulten said on the earnings call today. "So we will price and we will price with innovation, not jeopardizing the top line momentum."

💰 OpenAI is close to finalizing a potential $30 billion funding round at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, pitched as a bridge ahead of a potential IPO. (CNBC)

🤖 Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. (Axios)

🎬 Elon Musk is said to have made a roughly $1 billion investment in Skydance. (CNBC)

🎧 Spotify beat investor estimates on paid user growth for the third quarter, thanks in part to new AI-driven personalization features and other benefits designed to bolster the value of a subscription. (Axios)

Here comes the AI wedding tool, all dressed in the black.

💍 State of play: David's Bridal plans to spin off Pearl, its already profitable AI-powered wedding planner, as a publicly traded company with an anticipated valuation of $350 million, CNBC reports.

• David's Bridal CEO Kelly Cook will become CEO of Pearl as part of the spinoff.

👰 How it works: "Pearl's services include an agentic AI-powered wedding-planning platform, a proprietary tool to streamline appointments and communications and a digital content network with original programming," CNBC notes.

• "It uses AI to personalize its suggestions based on its data collection for each client."

💭 Nathan's thought bubble: This is a surprisingly positive turn of events for David's Bridal after it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018 and then again in 2023. If couples can use this tool to cut down on notoriously exorbitant wedding costs, this could have significant potential.