A much slower recovery for U.S. airlines compared to the automobile business is underway - if it can be called a recovery at all.
The largest commercial passenger airlines carrying 75% of U.S. passengers reported a slim 1.5% profit margin in the fourth quarter of 2011, down from 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today. The top ten carriers made a profit of $504 million with the losses reported by American Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy, and United Airlines, in the process of merging with Continental Airlines.
With these data, combined with record levels of long-term unemployment and a moribund housing market, one wonders how anyone in the ruling class can claim the recession is over?
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. The unpopular baggage fees and reservation change fees are the only additional fees paid by passengers that are reported to BTS as separate items.
Slim to none - actually negative none.
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 broken out.
The data released today is missing reports from Mesa Airlines, which filed a report with errors that have not yet been corrected. (One hopes its navigation is better.)
In addition, investors beware: Colgan Airlines, Mesaba Airlines and Pinnacles Airlines requested confidentiality for their reports.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
