As we get closer to airline earnings reports this week, travel blogger Christopher Elliott asked the pertinent question, "Would airlines still be profitable if you stripped away the fees?"
In his analysis, the answer is yes, but barely.
Elliott looked at the quarterly estimates that say the nine largest US airlines will report $2.4 billion profits for the third quarter on $33.3 billion in revenues. He calculates that airlines will have collected $2.25 billion in ancillary fees in the same period.
Bottom line? The industry would make about $150 million if it wasn't charging fees.
Check out his full blog post here.
Yes - they would make plenty of money, but not enough for those airlines to give their executives outrageous failure bonuses.
Therefore, they're losing money.
Posted by: FrankZ1 | October 19, 2010 at 01:05 PM
well, they could make money if they could dump their overpaid, underworked mechanics and clerks.
or get the flight attendants to clean planes like at their beloved competitor southwest.
without the fees? nah, they'd be in bankruptcy quicker than a twu mechanic can say S T R I K E
Posted by: frankiepandercat, the stupidest people on earth | October 19, 2010 at 02:18 PM