Comment by whazor
12 hours ago
Both Southwest, but also Ryanair are profitable. Totally possible to make money off flights.
But you have to follow the same model: use cheaper airports, a single modern aircraft type to simplify operations, high turnaround speed, charge a lot for extras.
It’s not enough to “make a profit”.
Southwest has 30B in assets and makes $441M in profit. Like most airlines it’s a miracle of modern economics and should practically be considered a charity or a nonprofit. You would make more in treasuries or corporate bonds.
Their last earnings report says about 17B in non-cash assets with about 848M in profit based on those assets (assuming that the quarterly profit x 4 is a reasonable assumption). So where are your numbers from?
Wow… at 1.5% annual return wouldn’t they be better off just renting those assets (aircraft) to other airlines?!
The majority of airliners are on 'dry lease' to their respective airlines to begin with.
Corporate bonds won't take you to Disneyland.