High Cost Hindrance

[700UW]

it is no there are not part of mainline.

Happy now?

 

[PhillyFlyGuy]

And NWA uses 1-A319s, 2-757s and 3-DC9 on six flights from MKE-DTW.

MKE-MSP uses 2-757, 1- A319, 757-300, 2-DC9 on six flights

MKE-LGA uses 1-A320

MKE-DCA uses A319, and 2-757s

MKE-MEM uses A319 and 2-DC9

So your RJ analogy about MKE does not work when NWA is using Big Jets.

MKE to NWA is a very strong focus city with connections. That is why they use a majority of mainline flying.

 

[insp89]

I researched the CASM of most airlines. Here is what I found. All of these are operating CASM, include fuel, exclude "Express" operations, exclude "Special items", and are not stage adjusted. These are all from Q1 reports, except Spirit (they are privately held, therefore are not required to report publicly). Spirit's is from their website.

Airline CASM
jetBlue 6.08c
ATA 7.34c
America West 7.60c
Southwest 7.82c
Spirit 7.97c
AirTran 8.26c
American 9.49c
Continental 9.49c
Midwest 9.59c
United 10.18c
Northwest 10.23c
Alaska 10.36c
Delta 10.71c
US Airways 11.68c

A couple of things I found interesting:

CO's CASM was noted kind of oddly... They noted 9.76c including a special charge of 0.27c. When you remove the Special charge, the CASM is 9.49c (identical to AA's... hmmm)

Midwest's CASM had come down Year-Over-Year by almost 20% from 11.70c last year. I assume this has to do with employee concessions and adding seats on the MD-80 "Super Saver Service", they are running.

ATA's CASM was 7.34, but their RASM was 6.94c, or a loss per ASM of 0.40. That translated into a $65mil loss for Q1... Just when you thought all LCC's are profitable.

At first look, Southwest's CASM looks high for its peer group. However, their CASM was on an average stage of 600miles or so. jetBlue's CASM was on an average stage of 1300 miles or so. I looked into a UNISYS report which showed Southwest's CASM for Q2 over the last several years adjusted for stage length. It showed that Southwest's CASM at 1300 miles would be less than jetBlue's at 1300 miles, around 5.98c. Also, America West's stage length was around average 1100 miles. That means that where AWA and Southwest compete head to head (like PHX-BWI), Southwest maintains a CASM advantage, even though it does not appear so here... We discussed this in a different thread as well.

Lastly, Frontier has not yet reported Q1 earnings.

Thanks for the research, Seems like these airlines have a lot of leeway in determining their CASM numbers..I find it interesting that these numbers include fuel, I wonder what Southwest's CASM would be if they were not heavily Fuel Hedged ?? I noticed you stated that "Special Items" were excluded, while at the same time, "Special charges" were INCLUDED.. [example, Continential]. Same ole Song and Dance by the "Wing Tip Wonder" beancounters.

 

[Chuck]

This cost per seat mile is getting old and should be used as a tool to measure management effectiveness instead of just labor cost. Does anybody remember years ago when the F/A's threatened a strike the company posted the cost per seat mile at USAirways and how much more it was that the competitors. They then showed that labor was a certain percentage of cost per seat mile. It didn't take a scientist to see that if everybody worked for free USAirways would still have a cost per seat mile higher than most competitors. This fact seems to point the blame finger where it belongs! <_<

 

[oldiebutgoody]

Looking at CASM only is a pretty useless thing to do. The REAL issue is the difference between CASM and The Revenue per Available Seat Mile (RASM). UAIR has almost always generated a MUCH larger RASM than other carriers, since folks in the east will pay more (generally) than folks in the west. The RASM issue is what drove U out of the west coast. Folks just WON'T pay airline fares for less than a 4 or 500 mile flight out west. And even then they would complain about it costing more than driving. In the east, folks will pay to fly shorter distances, like between DCA and PHL, anjd it's only about a 2 to 2.5 hour drive. The REAL issue is the RASM - CASM amount, NOT the CASM only!