You fail to account for the millions Delta pays to MRO's to overhaul is fleet and that is not in the ASMs.
And Maintenance is one of the few departments that can make money without a passenger.
This is precisely the reason why AA can't make any progress in its labor relations because you are part of the culture of denial that exists at AA among both management and labor; "If we just argue about or ignore the problem long enough, it will just go away. And by all means deny that anyone else could possibly be doing something right."
In fact, DL accounts ifor its contracted maintenance services in its financial disclosures in the following line... this is from the last quarterliy report:
Aircraft maintenance materials and outside repairs
3 months ended Dec 2010 $395M
3 months ended Dec 2009 $284M
Difference in dollars $111M
Difference in % 39%
DL most certainly does account for its contracted maintenance services in addition to its personnel which for all carriers are under the employee salary and related costs line and it uses all of that information to calculate its costs.
To somehow pretend that DL is playing some game to make its CASM look better belies the fact that DL employees earned over $300M in profit sharing and DL had the highest margin among the network carriers for 2010.
Quite frankly, DL has a culture of productivity in all departments and it cuts across the company.
But the whole point once again is that AA would be doing the same work DL is doing for other companies if it had the cost to do it.
Note the following statement that DL consistentliy makes in its financial reports also to clearly show that its CASM is generated based on its own costs to generate its ASMs, not what it spends to do other people's work.
"Consolidated and Mainline CASM excludes ancillary businesses not associated with the generation of a seat mile. These businesses include aircraft maintenance and staffing services Delta provides to third parties, Delta's vacation wholesale operations and its dedicated freighter operations, which we discontinued on Dec. 31, 2009."
Actually, the most profitable business for the airlines is the sale of frequent flyer miles which requires next to no investment compared to maintenance and it also makes money without there needing to be a passenger present.
Once again, the bleeding will stop. It always does.
Pretending you will survive while continously bleeding has an expected outcome.
AA is the last US network airline to restructure. There is nothing that has happened at AA that hasn't happened elsewhere - and so far AA has done nothing to change the course of history that has played out in the US network carrier segment of the industry.
The formula for sick airlines that have survived is rather simple: cut costs and use the cost savings to compete more effectiveliy for new revenue which you previously could not obtain.
When you or anyone else can find a formula for AA that is different and will work, be sure and let someone know. STAT.
Right now the patient is looking rather ashen.