While U.S. airlines have been losing money over the past several quarters they are going better than during the 2001-02 period. As you can see from the past few slides U.S. airlines have become more efficient operators in recent years. This has helped them limit their losses during the current recession. However, despite the efficiency gains (for example, higher load factors, and increased passenger miles per gallon of fuel) U.S. airlines are still not profitable.
Data source:
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, F41 Schedule P12
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Another example of how U.S. airlines have increase their operating efficiency in recent years is revenue passenger-miles per gallon of fuel. As you can see from the above chart revenue passenger-miles per gallon have increased significantly in recent years.
Data source
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, T-100
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The above chart shows a historical view of the load factor for all U.S. airlines. Load factor is calculated as passenger-miles as a proportion of available seat-miles and shown as a percentage. As you can see U.S. airlines have been doing a good job of increasing their load factors in recent years. Even in the current recession (with declining passenger miles) U.S. airlines are managing load factors well. Load factor is a primary measure of operating efficiency in the airline industry.
Data source:
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics T-100
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The above chart shows the top 10 U.S. airports based on Jan-Apr 2009 enplaned passengers. It also compares these numbers with the 2008 figures for the same period. As you can see most of the top 10 U.S. airports have seen dramatic declines in passengers in 2009 from last year.
Data source:
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, T-100
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The above chart shows the top 10 U.S. airlines by system scheduled enplaned passengers for April 2009. It also shows April 2008 numbers for comparison. As you can see most major airlines have seen substantable declines in passengers in April 2009 compared to last year.
Data source:
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, T-100.
Note: System scheduled enplanements includes domestic and international.
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