Airline Data and Analysis
By AirlineFinancials.com
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--
American
Delta
United
Continental
Northwest
Southwest
US Airways
Summary of 2008 data for all airlines covered by this website
Smaller airlines can be found here.
(note: DAL and NWA data is primarily from the BTS and may not reconcile with the SEC filings.)
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Index of charts showing annual comparisons from 2002-2008 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 – American employee revenue productivity Chart 8 – United employee revenue productivity Chart 9 – Continental employee revenue productivity Chart 10 – Northwest employee revenue productivity Chart 11 – Delta employee revenue productivity Chart 12 – Southwest employee revenue productivity Chart 13 – US Airways employee revenue productivity Chart 14 -- n/a 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 Chart 33 – Capacity (ASM's) Chart 34 – International ratio of ASM capacity 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 – American employee ASM productivity Chart 40 – United employee ASM productivity Chart 41 – Continental employee ASM productivity Chart 42 – Northwest employee ASM productivity Chart 43 – Delta employee ASM productivity Chart 44 – Southwest employee ASM productivity Chart 45 -- US Airways employee ASM productivity Chart 46 -- n/a 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 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 Chart 65 – American passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 66 – United passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 67 – Continental passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 68 – Northwest passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 69 – Delta passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 70 – Southwest passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 71 – US Airways passenger fare expense breakdown Chart 72 -- n/a 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 block hours (daily average) Chart 76 – Aircraft departures (daily average) 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
(click on each title for a PDF file of the graphs)
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 ratios do not reconcile 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.
