Big 3 Airlines Report Combined $906M Loss

[Carla in Ca]

<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041021/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_airlines>



ATLANTA - Three of the nation's largest airlines reported a combined $906 million in third-quarter losses on Wednesday. The largest by far was at Delta Air Lines Inc., where bankruptcy looms unless it can quickly win concessions from its pilots and debt holders.


Soaring fuel prices were the main culprit for the red ink at AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, Northwest Airlines Corp. and Delta, whose situation also has been exacerbated by the cost of servicing its $20.6 billion in debt. All three reported higher revenue

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[bluestateguy]

1. Where did all that money go that the government gave them after 9/11?

What did they do with that airline "bailout" money Congress gave them after 9/11? How quickly did they piss that all away?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. One of the ways is...

That they pay their executives at some of the highest rates going. It would be nice if they actually delivered for all that money.

[KeepItReal]

3. Good ass question!! Southwest and JetBlue are doing fine though...

<eom>

[progressivebydesign]

4. Yahoo front page says it's a "911 Million loss".

911? How utterly exploiting for them to trot that amount out, when it's actually 906. Or.. it's the freakiest typo I've ever seen.

[metisnation]

8. Yahoo said it was a 911Million loss

I read that too definately not a typo but a scare tactic. Nazi scum tact! Must be that liberal media working again...yeah right probably a black op

[Voltaire99]

5. Time to nationalize the air industry.

Air travel is too important to be left to no-account barons.

[Carla in Ca]

6. It is at the same time the

air traffic controllers put out an anti-bush ad...timing?

[Laelth]

7. I hate to see our airlines lose money!

So many good union jobs, so many good union workers. Losses provide another excuse for management to come asking for "concessions."

Arrgh! Another reason to boot chimpy. :kick:

-Laelth

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. When I went to Japan last month, I chose NOT to fly a U.S. airline

because they tend to treat the passengers like so many cattle.

In order to pick up a Japanese airline, I had to fly to the West Coast on Northwest, and I had to deal with cancellations, delays, sardine seating, and bad, bad food (a bag of baby carrots with rotten spots on the way back, among other things).

I've heard so many other horror stories about bad service on planes, that it's no wonder that the airlines are losing money. Maybe if they actually treated passengers decently, they wouldn't always be searching for the lowest possible fare. Personally, I always look for the lowest fare, because I refuse to pay premium prices to be treated like so much cargo, and what's really hurting them, aside from high fuel prices, is that now business travelers, the former customers for their high-priced "full fare" coach tickets, are looking for the cheap fares.

Oh, by the way, the Japanese airline? The employees were utterly sweet and helpful when I had trouble making my connection (thanks to Northwest's delays), the cabin was roomy, the seats were comfortable, the in-flight personnel were sweet and helpful, the food was decent (if served in odd combinations--but that's Western food, Japanese-style), the beverages kept coming regularly and on-demand, we had seat-back TVs, and we both left and arrived on time. What a concept! I'd actually pay a couple hundred dollars extra for that kind of a flight, but it cost no more than flying a U.S. airline the same route.

ON EDIT: I don't really blame the flight attendants or check-in personnel. I knew some Delta employees in Portland, and they told of being nickel and dimed by management and of management decisions to nickel and dime the passengers.