Airline profits? .... It's all in the fees

[marmar]

ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- U.S. airlines collected about $4.3 billion in fee revenue in the first three quarters of 2010, an amount roughly equivalent to the industry's anticipated total profits for the year.

With the fourth quarter historically one in which airlines loses money, it is possible to include that nearly every penny of the industry's profits will result from fee income. U.S. airlines are expected to earn about $4 billion in 2010 after losing $23.7 billion the previous year.

Speaking at an investor conference last month, US Airways(LCC_) CFO Derek Kerr said the airline would have about $500 million in 2010 fee revenue, including $475 million from baggage fees. That is roughly equivalent to US Airways' expected 2010 profit.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics on Monday reported fee revenue for the first three quarters. Among the individual carriers, Delta(DAL_), the largest airline, had the highest fee revenue, about $1.3 billion. American(AMR_) had about $785 million. Combined, United(UAL_) and Continental had about $922 million. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestreet.com/story/10945724/1/airline-fees-account-for-most-airline-profits.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

[MineralMan]

1. How many workers do the airlines employ, I wonder?

How many of those workers belong to a union? How many airlines have folded in the past two decades?

A person has to work somewhere.

On Edit: Scheduled airlines employed the equivalent of 378,100 full-time employees, as of July, 2010. That's down 2.3% from last July.

Source: http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2010/bts045_10/html/bts045_10.html

[customerserviceguy]

2. They're missing an obvious fee

Charge me 10 or 20 percent more to sit in the front of the cattle class section, while relegating the crying lap babies (who ride for free) and the squealing seat-kickers (who ride for half price) to the back of the aircraft, where I don't have to experience them.