Do You Recall SeeingThis Statement About Airline Profitability?

[ThomWV]

Several years ago (3~5) I was reading an article in which the author made a statement about the profitability of US air carriers that I have not been able to forget. However I do not recall where I saw it and try as I might I have not been able to find it again and I have no idea how to go about discovering for myself it it was true or not.

Here it is:

If you added up all the profits and losses for every air carrier that has existed from the day the Wright brothers first flew and today you would come up with a negative number. In the long run the air carrier industry has always lost money.

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Only in the US.

If I am not mistaken, that really only applies to US domestic carriers.

The likes of British Airways, Qantas, KLM etc. have indeed made money over time.

[DS1]

2. Yeah, tell that to Virgin

Branson seems to be doing just fine!

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. The idea for Virgin has been around for only 3 years.....

and the airline itself has only been operating since last August. Hardly enough time to give a true picture. Even if you added their profits to the equation, US domestic carriers as a whole have still not made money.

Edited for accuracy.

[DS1]

5. Virgin is British

I'm just saying that it is possible to be a profitable carrier.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. No argument. The Virgin name is indeed British but Virgin America is an American Airline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_America

Branson retains 25% of the company's stock through Virgin Group.

Of course it is possible to be a profitable carrier. That is not the overall point of the issue raised by the OP. The point is, as I stated above, when looking at the US Domestic carriers as a whole, the airline industry has not been a profitable venture in the USA. If there are 12 total carriers for example, with 10 carriers that have been profitable but 2 that have lost more money than those ten combined have made, the industry is at a net operating loss.

[Orsino]

3. Profitable to whom, though?

To the executive class and big investors for whose benefit the industry is run, it works well enough. The burden, as usual, falls on working Americans.

[DCKit]

7. Thanks to great accountants and badly written tax laws with loopholes the QEII could float through..

no Hollywood movie has ever made a profit either.