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The overall industry has been profitable since 2010, peaked at 15% average in 2015. 2020 was a slaughter for obvious reasons. You have a weird definition of "b

The overall industry has been profitable since 2010, peaked at 15% average in 2015. 2020 was a slaughter for obvious reasons. You have a weird definition of "barely profitable" given the average corporate profit margin in the US is 9% and your claim "others are near 0% most years" is an outright fabrication.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Yes, I was wrong about near 0% for the past decade, although a few of the airlines were near zero for many of the years. But given the volatility, it still does not seem like a big profit margin. Seems like the consolidation was necessary to make them viable businesses. In my lifetime (I am mid 30s), you would have had a really bad time owning a piece of the airline business. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/UAL/united-airlines-holdings-inc/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/UAL/united-airline... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAL/american-airlines-group/net-profit-margin https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAL/american-airli... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JBLU/jetblue-airways/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JBLU/jetblue-airwa... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ALK/alaska-air/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ALK/alaska-air/pro... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/LUV/southwest-airlines/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/LUV/southwest-airl... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DAL/delta-air-lines/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DAL/delta-air-line... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SAVE/spirit-airlines/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SAVE/spirit-airlin...