Tue, Sep 22, 2009
Airlines Report Improved Operating Margins
The network, low-cost and regional airline groups all reported
improved operating margins in the second quarter of 2009, the
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. DOT reported
Monday in a release of preliminary data.
BTS, a part of the Research and
Innovative Technology Administration, reported that network
carriers as a group posted their smallest operating margin loss for
any quarter since September 2007 while the low-cost and regional
groups reported profit margins. The low-cost group's profit
margin of 7.0 percent was its largest since the second quarter of
2007 while the regionals' profit margin of 7.2 percent was its
largest since the fourth quarter of 2006.
The low-cost and regional performance offset the network loss
margin, resulting in 21 airlines surveyed achieving their first
overall profitable operating margin since the third quarter of
2007. Only five of the 21 reported loss margins while the remaining
16 reported profit margins.
The network group has reported loss
margins for seven consecutive quarters, but the -0.5 loss margin in
the most recent quarter was the smallest. In the
April-to-June period, three of the seven network airlines, the
group with most of the industry's largest carriers, reported loss
margins. American Airlines reported the largest loss margin of the
group, followed by Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Low-cost carrier Virgin America and regional carrier ExpressJet
Airlines were the only other airlines to report loss margins in the
second quarter
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