Airline Data and Analysis
By AirlineFinancials.com
June 3, 2009 .. Was the last update to this page.
This page reconciles 2002-2008 data annually into over 80 graph presentations for user friendly airline-to-airline comparisons.
Click on the airlines below to pull up a detailed table of historical data.
Page 1 includes primarily SEC and BTS data.
Page 2 provides calculated ratios.
(Except where noted, this is mainline data.)
--Further down this page are easy to interpret graphs--
JetBlue
Alaska
Air Tran
Frontier
Allegiant
Summary of 2008 data for all airlines covered by this website
The larger airline's data can be found here.
**************************************************************************************************************
(click on each title for a PDF file of the graphs)
Financial-
Chart 1 – Total operating revenue
Chart 2 – Operating unit revenue (RASM)
Chart 3 – Revenue per aircraft
Chart 4 – Revenue productivity per employee
Chart 5 – Revenue productivity per flight attendant
Chart 6 – Revenue productivity per pilot
Chart 7-14 - not applicable
Financial/operational-
Chart 15 – System yield
Chart 16 – Cash & equiv ratio of revenue
Chart 17 – Long term-debt ratio of revenue
Chart 18 – Long–term debt ratio to assets
Chart 19 – RASM – CASM differential
Chart 20 – Operating margin
Chart 21 -- Median stock price
Chart 22 – Operating unit costs (CASM)
Chart 23 – Unit costs without fuel and labor expense
Chart 24 – Unit costs without labor expense
Chart 25 – Labor expense per ASM
Chart 26 -- Pilot wage/salary cost per unit mile
Chart 27 -- Flight Attendant wage/salary cost per unit mile
Chart 28 – Fuel expense ratio of revenue
Chart 29 – Wage benefit ratio of revenue
Chart 30 -- Pilot wage/salary percentage of total labor expense
Chart 31 -- Flight Attendant wage/salary percentage of total labor expense
Chart 32 – Salary/benefit per employee
Operational-
Chart 33 – Capacity (ASM's)
Chart 34 – not applicable
Chart 35 -- ASM productivity per aircraft
Chart 36 – ASM productivity per employee
Chart 37 – ASM productivity per flight attendant
Chart 38 – ASM productivity per pilot
Chart 39-46 -- not applicable
Labor-
Chart 47 – Total employees
Chart 48 – Total flight attendants
Chart 49 – Total pilots
Chart 50 – Employees per aircraft
Chart 51 – Flight attendants per aircraft
Chart 52 – Pilots per aircraft
Chart 53 – Flight attendant ratio of total employees
Chart 54 – Pilot ratio of total employees
Passenger-
Chart 55 – Average passenger fare
Chart 56 – Operating expense per passenger less fuel & labor
Chart 57 – Fuel expense per passenger
Chart 58 – Labor expense (total wage & benefit) per passenger
Chart 59 – Management expense per passenger
Chart 60 – Pilot expense per passenger
Chart 61 – Flight Attendant expense per passenger
Chart 62 -- Pilot wage/salary percentage of average passenger fare
Chart 63 -- Management wage/salary percentage of average passenger fare
Chart 64 -- Flight Attendant wage/salary percentage of average passenger fare
Specific airline passenger fare breakdowns-
Chart 65 – JetBlue passenger fare expense breakdown
Chart 66 – Alaska passenger fare expense breakdown
Chart 67 – Air Tran passenger fare expense breakdown
Chart 68 – Frontier passenger fare expense breakdown
Chart 69 – Allegiant passenger fare expense breakdown
Chart 70-72 -- not applicable
Miscellaneous ratios-
Chart 73 – Revenue miles per passenger
Chart 74 – Passenger per employee productivity
Chart 75 – Passenger per flight attendant productivity
Chart 76 – Load factor
Chart 77 -- Aircraft departures (daily average)
Chart 78 -- Aircraft block hours (daily average)
Chart 79 -- Employee wage/salary (average)
Chart 80 -- Pilot wage/salary (average)
Chart 81 -- Flight Attendant wage/salary (average)
Notes and terms
NOTES –
Some data has been excluded due to bankruptcy accounting or/and having irrelevant impact for comparison.
Some calculations use cumulative data with a year ending divisor which may cause a distortion of the conclusion.
USAIR includes America West
SEC & BTS data for wage/benefits may not be reported the same
(SEC) US Security and Exchange Commission
(BTS) Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Note: There are differences between how airlines categorize data for BTS & SEC reports.
[1] Total revenue excludes recognized affiliate passenger revenue.
[2] Operating expense excludes recognized affiliate expenses.
[3] Does not include benefit expense.
[4] Recognized LT debt plus Cap leases less current maturities.
[5] Operating income (loss) excludes known affiliate revenue and expenses.
[6] Net profit (loss) is from SEC and includes affiliate data.
[7] Estimated median stock price for the time period noted.
[8] Active full time equivalent employees from BTS data. May be estimated when data is not available.
[9] Operating margin excludes recognized affiliate income and expense.
[10] Avg passenger fare is calculated from passenger revenue/passenger count.
[11] Operating income (loss) per passenger is from average one way fare and does not include affiliate impact.
[12] Southwest categorizes management personnel and salaries differently from other airlines.
[13] There is no standard criteria for what "positions" are considered as "General Management".
[14] Block hours per pilot is adjusted to 3 pilots/wide body aircraft and 2 pilots for all other aircraft.
[15] Due to UAL's bankruptcy from Dec 2002 to Feb 2006. UAL debt for 2002 is as of 9/30/2002.
[c] Metric may not be reported. Calculated from other reported data.
[20] Delta reports consolidated mainline and affiliate data for several categories. As such, airline to airline comparisons may not be valid.
[21] NWA Operating acft includes some freighters. ASM pilot ratios reconcile 18 pilots per freighter. ASM/acft ratios exclude freighters. FA/acft ratios exclude freighters.
Glossary of 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 “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
o/w -- One way
Disclaimer: Data source includes SEC, BTS, labor web sites & Corporate Reports. Except where noted, recognized affiliate revenue and costs were removed to provide mainline comparisons. All data is subject to errors. For more equivalent comparisons, some UAL, NWA & DAL data immediately pre & post bankruptcy was used.
