Isn’t that hyperbole? They’re not doing banking, they’re running a rewards program that has a vague dollar value but really serves no function of a traditional bank.

they turned airlines into something more like financial institutions that happen to fly planes on the side

For example here they’re hedging. It’s like financial institutions.

Here’s how the system works now: Airlines create points out of nothing and sell them for real money to banks with co-branded credit cards.

So, they’re like banks if they partner with banks to run a program.

This argument does not pass the sniff test to me. It’s just The Atlantic selling a narrative so their readers can talk about something to sound clever.