About Bob Herbst

        How things have changed! I took my first flying lesson way back in 1965 at the Lake Elmo, MN airport. If you consider both of my parents worked for Northwest Airlines when I was born in 1950, I've been connected to the airline industry for well over a half century.

        To keep it short, after a few years flight instructing, flying charters, some corporate flying and a couple of years as an engineering test pilot; In 1974 I fulfilled my childhood dream and became an airline pilot. I am currently near the end of my flying career and an International wide body Captain for a major airline.

        About 25 years ago, I became an active trader in equity and option markets. Along the way, I attended Lakewood State JC and the University of Minnesota. In order to learn more about corporate structure and what all of that -stuff- meant in the never ending stacks of corporate financial reports, I took courses in finance and investments.

        Over the past several years, I have provided numerical analysis and consulting for various labor entities and participated on a few investment/airline message boards using the names Bob H and Numbersbob.

        I believe my direct involvement in the airline industry combined with the financial knowledge I've acquired provides me a unique insight into the industry beyond number crunching that is not shared by most analysts.

        If you have any comments or suggestions to make this web site more user friendly, I hope you will forward them to me.

       Sincerely,

            Bob Herbst

email me at-

bobh@airlinefinancials.com

The following web sites can be used to verify data included in this report

BTS web site

ATA web site

DOT Reports

Airline Pilot Central

SEC (SIC 4512 reports)

American Airlines

United Airlines

Delta Airlines

Continental Airlines

Northwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines

USAirways

JetBlue Airways

Glossary of Defined Terms--

ASM— Available Seat Mile. A measure of capacity. ASM’s equal the total number of seats available for transporting passengers during a reporting period multiplied by the total number of miles flown during that period.

RPM— Revenue Passenger Mile. One revenue-paying passenger transported one mile. RPM's equal the number of revenue passengers during a reporting period multiplied by the number of miles flown by those passengers during that period, RPM’s are also referred to as “traffic”.

Yield— The amount of passenger revenue earned per RPM during a reporting period.

RASM— Operating Revenue per ASM. The amount of operating revenue earned per ASM during a reporting period. RASM is also referred to as “unit revenue.”

PRASM— Passenger Revenue per ASM. The amount of passenger revenue earned per ASM during a reporting period. Passenger RASM is also referred to as “passenger unit revenue.”

CASM— (Operating) Cost per Available Seat Mile. The amount of operating cost incurred per ASM during a reporting period, also referred to as “unit cost”.

LF-- Passenger Load Factor — A measure of utilized available seating capacity calculated by dividing RPMs by ASM’s for a reporting period.

Average fare-- Represents the average one-way fare paid per flight segment by a revenue passenger.