Some numbers I found on airlinefinancials.com from a cross section of airlines, 2002-2008, sorry couldn't find more recent ones...trends were interesting to see.
DAL
Pilot wage/salary cost per passenger (o/w)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$15.42 $16.80 $16.37 $11.18 $9.88 $10.32 $11.19
Pilot wage/salary % of average o/w fare
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
13.0% 13.6% 13.1% 8.4% 6.2% 6.0% 5.8%
Passenger fare (average one way)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$118.38 $123.61 $125.41 $132.59 $158.32 $173.16 $191.93
AA
Pilot wage/salary cost per passenger (o/w)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$16.53 $16.01 $14.09 $12.75 $12.08 $11.79 $12.43
Pilot wage/salary % of average o/w fare
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
10.8% 9.8% 8.6% 7.5% 6.6% 6.3% 6.3%
Passenger fare (average one way)[10]
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$153.53 $162.58 $164.04 $169.47 $182.00 $185.76 $196.55
CAL
Pilot wage/salary cost per passenger (o/w)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$13.77 $13.28 $13.38 $11.98 $11.17 $12.03 $12.81
Pilot wage/salary % of average o/w fare
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
8.3% 7.9% 7.7% 6.4% 5.6% 5.7% 5.5%
Passenger fare (average one way)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$165.21 $168.54 $174.79 $185.99 $199.41 $211.77 $233.80
UAL
Pilot wage/salary cost per passenger (o/w)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$21.52 $13.57 $11.88 $10.55 $10.42 $10.72 $11.99
Pilot wage/salary % of average o/w fare
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
12.1% 7.9% 6.7% 5.5% 5.0% 4.8% 4.9%
Passenger fare (average one way)[10]
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$177.43 $172.13 $177.18 $193.56 $207.42 $223.06 $242.87
SWA
Pilot wage/salary cost per passenger (o/w)
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$7.40 $7.97 $8.55 $9.19 $9.59 $10.00 $10.90
Pilot wage/salary % of average o/w fare
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
8.7% 9.1% 9.7% 9.8% 9.2% 9.4% 9.2%
Passenger fare (average one way)[10]
'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08
$84.72 $87.42 $88.57 $93.69 $104.40 $106.60 $119.16
Avg employees per airplane, FAs per airplane and pilots per airplane also tells you something about productivity differences. This link will take to you a chart (scroll to 2nd page) that shows that dramatic difference.
http://www.airlinefinancials.com/uploads/08_lg_CH_47-54.pdf
Lastly, one other measure of productivity is number of ASMs (per 10K) generated per employee...more is better. Chart at http://www.airlinefinancials.com/uploads/08_lg_CH_39-45.pdf shows these numbers but summary is below (least to most efficient):
AA 225
USA 225
CAL 250
UAL 260
DAL 275 (pre-merger)
NWA 290 (pre-merger)
SWA 305
Sorry I couldn't make the cells break out better...I'm sure there is a way but I just don't know how. Lear, any suggestions?
Interesting numbers comparison.
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