For Most Airlines, Revenues Are in Free-fall

Despite all that dough many carriers are raking in on checked-bag fees (see previous post), most airlines are in financial trouble because overall passenger revenue is off so sharply. The reasons for that revenue sinkhole: persisting low fares coupled with a sharp fall-off in demand that began really digging in at end end of last year -- and shows no sign yet of turning around.

Here is a summary of airline financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, as helpfully compiled by SpeedNews. Look all those double-digit revenue declines:

***

"FALLING REVENUE

This week, several US airlines reported their financials for 2Q 09; some lost and some profited, but all -- except for Allegiant Air -- saw declining revenues:

DELTA AIR LINES lost $257m in 2Q 09 (vs $83m profit in 2Q 08) on 23% lower revenues;

UAL CORPORATION (United) reported net loss of $323m (vs $2.7b loss in 2Q 08) on 25% lower revenues;

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES had $213m net loss in 2Q 09 (vs $5m loss in 2Q 08) on 22.7% lower revenues;

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES has $54m net profit in 2Q 09 (vs $321m in 2Q 08) on 9% lower revenues.

US AIRWAYS GROUP had $58m net income in 2Q 09 (vs $568m loss in 2Q 08) on 18.4% lower revenues;

JETBLUE had $20m net income in 2Q09 (vs $9m net loss in 2Q 08) on 6% lower revenues;

ALASKA AIR GROUP had $29.1m net income in 2Q 09 (vs $63.1m in 2Q 08) on 9.3% lower revenues;

AIRTRAN HOLDINGS had $$78.4m net income in 2Q 09 (vs $14.8m loss in 2Q 08) on 13% lower revenues;

ALLEGIANT TRAVEL (Allegiant Air) had $23.9m net income in 2Q 09 (vs $2.6m in 2Q 08) on 12.5% higher revenues;

AIR FRANCE-KLM reports revenues for first quarter ended June 30 dropped 20.5% from a year ago to €5.19b; it plans to announce its [full] results at the end of the month."

Adding to the above list: American Airlines reported a $390 million second-quarter loss (vs $298 million in the 2008 2Q), on 22.3 percent lower revenues.

###