4th-Quarter 2011 Airline Financial Data: Largest Airlines Report Profit

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Contact BTS 24-12 Dave Smallen 202-366-5568

Thursday, May 17, 2012 - The largest scheduled passenger airlines reported a 1.5 percent profit margin in the fourth quarter of 2011, down from 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today in a release of preliminary data (Table 1).

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the large airlines reported an operating profit margin as a group in each of the last three quarters. As a group, they posted a profit of $504 million with the only losses reported by American Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy, and United Airlines, which was in the process of merging with Continental Airlines (Table 1). These 10 airlines carried 75.5 percent of U.S. airlines’ scheduled service passengers in 2011.  See Airline Financial Data Press Releases for historic data.

As part of their fourth-quarter revenue, the airlines collected $792 million in baggage fees and $567 million from reservation change fees from October to December 2011.

Baggage fees and reservation change fees are the only ancillary fees paid by passengers that are reported to BTS as separate items. Other fees, such as revenue from seating assignments and on-board sales of food, beverages, pillows, blankets, and entertainment are reported in a different category with other items and cannot be identified separately.

The press release includes these tables for the 10 top carriers: Table 2, Unit Costs; Table 3, Unit Revenues; Table 4; Passenger Revenue Yield.

Additional airline financial data can be found on the BTS website, including numbers for other individual low-cost and regional airlines included on previous BTS quarterly financial press releases.  Operating profit/loss and operating revenue can be found on these tables. Fuel cost and consumption numbers are available on these tables. See the BTS financial databases for more detailed data.

Data are compiled from quarterly financial and monthly traffic reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers. Financial and traffic data are preliminary and include data received by BTS as of May 10.  Revised carrier data and late data filings will be made available monthly on TranStats on the Monday following the second Tuesday of the month. Data are subject to revision.

The data released today is missing reports from the following scheduled passenger carriers: Mesa Airlines filed a report with errors that have not yet been corrected.. Colgan Airlines, Mesaba Airlines and Pinnacles Airlines requested confidentiality for their reports.

Table 1: Large Airline System* Quarterly Operating Profit/Loss Margin (In Percent)

Ranked by 2011 System Passengers

(Operating Profit/(Loss) as Percent of Total Operating Revenue)

Excel | CSV

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Form 41; Schedule P1.2

* System = domestic + international

** Airlines reporting the most 2011 system passengers. See BTS Air Traffic Press Release

Table 2: Large Airline System* Unit Costs

Ranked by 2011 System Passengers

(Operating Expenses per Available Seat Mile in cents)

Excel | CSV

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Form 41; Schedule P1.2.  T100; T2 Data

* System = domestic + international

Table 3: Large Airline System* Unit Revenue

Ranked by 2011 System Passengers

(Operating Revenue per Available Seat Mile in cents)

Excel | CSV

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Form 41; Schedule P1.2.  T100; T2 Data

* System = domestic + international

Table 4: Large Airline System* Passenger Revenue Yield

Ranked by 2011 System Passengers

(Passenger Revenue Per Revenue Passenger Mile)

Excel | CSV

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Form 41; Schedule P1.2.  T100; T2 Data

* System = domestic + international