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[quote user="n012944"][quote user="daveklepper"] A recent article in THE JERUSALEM POST quoted a Continental Airlines executive as stating that NO USA AIRLINE IS SHOWING A PROFIT OR EVEN BREAKING EVEN ON DOMESTIC USA ROUTES![/quote]Well that is not true.  Southwest posts profits year after year on nothing but domestic service.[/quote]Southwest Airlines had an operating profit of $838 million, with net income of $590 million, for the four quarters ended October 31, 2007.  However, they are not the only U.S. carrier that made money on domestic operations.  Other domestic or largely domestic carriers, e.g. AirTrans, Air Wisconsin, American Eagle, etc. had solid operating profits.  In fact, most of the carriers had a positive return on their domestic operations, although the big carriers had a better return on their international operations.  In the case of the large carriers, it is frequently difficult to determine how much they cleared on domestic operations because of the trips that combine a domestic and international leg.   U.S. passenger airlines with annual revenues of more than $20 million did pretty well in 2007.  For the four quarters ended October 31, 2007, these carriers had net operating profits of $7.4 billion on operating revenues of $130.9 billion.  They realized a combined net income of $4.6 billion.  Operating profits were 5.7 per cent of revenues or sales, whilst net income was 3.5 per cent of revenues.  These margins are slim when compared to many businesses, but they are solid for the airline business, which has always operated with razor thin margins.  It is the nature of the business.Had it not been for an extraordinary net income loss at Comair ($479 million), the country's largest carriers would have realized net income of $5.1 billion or 3.9 per cent of revenues.  The extraordinary item was related to Comair's crash in Ohio.  The average operating revenue per passenger was $193.04, whilst the average operating cost was $182.10, leaving an average operating profit of $10.94 per passenger.  The average per passenger federal subsidy for the airlines, using NARP's figures, many of which are suspect, was $8.63 before adjustment for questionable items, i.e. those that cannot be verified.  After adjustment for questionable items, the subsidy, again using NARP's figures, was $6.81.The average per passenger federal airline subsidy using the latest government figures is $4.35.  The major difference in the numbers is attributable to the fact that NARP fails to differentiate between general aviation and commercial aviation, or its claims that the airlines benefit from basic military and space research without offering any evidence to support its claim.  .  Assuming the worse case scenario, i.e. the subsidy was $8.63 per passenger; the airlines would still have had an average operating profit of $2.31 per passenger.  Applying NARP's numbers after adjustment for questionable items leaves the airlines with an average operating profit of $4.13 per passenger.  Using the subsidy calculated by a review of the most recent governmental information leaves the airlines with an average operating return of $6.59 per passenger.Even after backing out the identifiable federal subsidies to airlines, they still made money in 2007.
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