Dan Webb

Well the majors have announced their earnings for the second quarter, and I’m going to spend the next couple of days analyzing them a little bit. Today we’ll look at costs, tomorrow will be revenues, and Wednesday will be a discussion on jet fuel prices.

First let’s compare the CASM numbers (cost per available seat mile) including fuel (but excluding special charges) from the second quarter of 2007 and 2008. (Click on any of the graphs to enlarge them)

Now excluding fuel and special charges…

And now let’s compare the percent change in each figure…

What does this mean? Well, overall, the airlines have done a good job of controlling non-fuel-related costs. On average, CASM excluding fuel increased 2%, but including fuel went up 13%. It’s a good start, but obviously more needs to be done. We won’t fully see the results of the other actions of the airlines until the fourth quarter results come out in January since most of the capacity cuts will come this fall.

Feel free to correct my numbers, by the way. Looking at earnings sheets can get a bit confusing after awhile.

AirTran will announce its earnings on Tuesday and I will update the charts to reflect that announcement.

Also, yes, Alaska’s numbers are a bit out of the ordinary - I need to take a closer look.

Anyways, a discussion on revenues tomorrow…