Southwest Airlines reported a profitable fourth quarter and full year for 2010. Here is its net income by year over the past 30 years, in millions of dollars: Fourth quarter Year Income Year Income Year Income 1981 $8 1991 $9 2001 $64 1982 $9 1992 $27 2002 $42 1983 $11 1993 $38 2003 $66 1984 […]
Posted on January 21st, 2011 by admin
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In a message to employees, AMR/American chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey reviewed 2010 and worried about fuel costs in 2011. Here’s the letter: Special Jetwire Wednesday, January 19, 2011 A Message from CEO Gerard Arpey Dear Colleague: I want to start my quarterly letter by thanking all of you for persevering through the unusually severe […]
Posted on January 20th, 2011 by admin
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Here’s how 2010 shaped up for the biggest U.S. airlines: They all had more traffic. They all filled a greater percentage of their seats. And, with the exception of United Airlines, they all flew more capacity than a year earlier. As you’ll note below, the airlines as a group had a load factor of 82.6 […]
Posted on January 18th, 2011 by admin
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Other factoids from the November 2010 Air Travel Consumer Report from the DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics: • Cancellations jumped more than 1,000 compared to November 2009: 3,755 in 2010 compared to 2,732 in 2009. SkyWest cancelled the most flights – 847 of 47,763, or 1.8 percent of its flights. Frontier cancelled only two out […]
Posted on January 12th, 2011 by admin
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Sorry, Delta Air Lines – your stay at the top didn’t last very long. United Airlines and Continental Airlines merged in 2010 to form the world’s largest airline company, displacing Delta. It was only two years earlier that No. 3 Delta and No. 4 Northwest Airlines merged to leapfrog past both American Airlines and United […]
Posted on December 31st, 2010 by admin
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Its own growth stalled, Southwest Airlines sidled up to AirTran Holdings last spring and whispered sweet things in its ear. The eventual result was the Sept. 27 announcement that Southwest would be buying its low-fare competitor as soon as the U.S. Department of Justice and AirTran shareholders give their blessing. If and when completed, the […]
Posted on December 30th, 2010 by admin
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The airline industry made an amazing financial recovery in 2010 after the most miserable, money-losing periods in its history. The final numbers won’t be in for 2010 until early 2011, but the International Air Transport Association estimates that air carriers worldwide will earn $15.1 billion in 2010. In 2009, the industry lost $9.9 billion loss […]
Posted on December 29th, 2010 by admin
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American Airlines executives have long complained that American’s major competitors had an unfair advantage across the North Atlantic. They had antitrust immunity to work with European partners; American did not. But American finally has parity, now that the U.S. Department of Transportation and European Union have approved its immunized partnership with British Airways and Iberia. […]
Posted on December 28th, 2010 by admin
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In 2008, American Airlines had to cancel several thousand flights in March and April because it hadn’t tied up some wiring properly as required by a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive. The repercussions continue. In August, the FAA proposed a fine of $24.2 million, the largest ever levied on a U.S. air carrier, for failing […]
Posted on December 27th, 2010 by admin
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The Transportation Security Administration in 2010 made a number of attempts to tighten up safety at the nation’s airports, and the changes caused a lot of fliers to howl. The TSA without much publicity began implementing new procedures for people who didn’t to want to go through the amazingly thorough body scanners that are being […]
Posted on December 26th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 48 Comments »
