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AA pulls off a financial miracle in September, 2012

 
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:18 pm
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AA pulls off a financial miracle in September, 2012

Despite the widely discussed operational difficulties in September, 2012, AA announced this morning that its unit revenue increased by an industry-leading 4.0% last month compared to Sept 2011. That bested the numbers already posted by UA, DL and US. Unit revenue at DL was up just a half a percent, at US it was flat year over year and at UA, it was down 3.3%. Had AA not encountered so many operational challenges, unit revenue would have increased by 4.4%:

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11730...o&cm_ven=YAHOO

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...anyNews&rpc=43

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/americ...152641223.html

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amr-co...131500557.html
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:34 pm
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Originally Posted by FWAAA
Despite the widely discussed operational difficulties in September, 2012, AA announced this morning that its unit revenue increased by an industry-leading 4.0% last month compared to Sept 2011. That bested the numbers already posted by UA, DL and US. Unit revenue at DL was up just a half a percent, at US it was flat year over year and at UA, it was down 3.3%. Had AA not encountered so many operational challenges, unit revenue would have increased by 4.4%:
Which is why I do not comment on the AA Death Knell threads.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:35 pm
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Exactly!
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:36 pm
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I wonder how much of this comes from the money AA have collected for flights that they didn't have to pay to fly due to cancellation....and haven't refunded yet

Cheers.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:39 pm
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Originally Posted by alhcfp
Which is why I do not comment on the AA Death Knell threads.
You mean the persistent rumours of AA's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated?

Another reminder that Flyertalk represents a miniscule fraction of AA's passengers and the Flyertalk crowd is probably not a representative sample; in September alone, AA boarded more than 8.2 million passengers.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:41 pm
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I do wonder the same thing - how much comes from increased revenue, how much from "savings" and float?

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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:46 pm
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Originally Posted by brp
I wonder how much of this comes from the money AA have collected for flights that they didn't have to pay to fly due to cancellation....and haven't refunded yet
That made me laugh out loud, but I don't think the accountants would permit that. It ain't revenue until the passenger departs or the fare is truly nonrefundable.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:52 pm
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Originally Posted by FWAAA
That made me laugh out loud, but I don't think the accountants would permit that. It ain't revenue until the passenger departs or the fare is truly nonrefundable.
Definately would not be allowed, and I'm speaking as a CPA and Director in the Coporate Accounting Department of a major Corporation Of course, AMR could be choosing to follow the path of Enron, but SOX requirements have mitigated some of that risk, and I doubt Deloitte (I think they are the big four on the engagement) would like to turn into another Arthur Anderson.

Last edited by umaa83; Oct 8, 2012 at 1:02 pm
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:55 pm
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Originally Posted by brp
I wonder how much of this comes from the money AA have collected for flights that they didn't have to pay to fly due to cancellation....and haven't refunded yet

Cheers.
AA doesn't run on the cash basis of accounting here. If they owe a refund to a customer, there would a liability recorded the instant (assuming most of the accounting is automated) a refund is due and that would then net against any revenue already collected from that customer.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 12:57 pm
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Thanks all for the comments. I was being )mostly) facetious in what I wrote. The details about just why it wouldn't work out that way are very cool, though.

Cheers.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 1:03 pm
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Originally Posted by FWAAA
That made me laugh out loud, but I don't think the accountants would permit that. It ain't revenue until the passenger departs or the fare is truly nonrefundable.
Their accountants must use spreadsheets that reach the 1000000 row list. Probably one reAAson why MS went from 65K rows to 1M
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 1:13 pm
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Originally Posted by FWAAA
You mean the persistent rumours of AA's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated?

Another reminder that Flyertalk represents a miniscule fraction of AA's passengers and the Flyertalk crowd is probably not a representative sample; in September alone, AA boarded more than 8.2 million passengers.
Hey I was 10 of those passengers .
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 1:21 pm
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I'm more curious on how much the profit from said revenue increased...
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 1:25 pm
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I'm real curious how much of this newly added revenue is due to their status match offer to UA1K elites. I know it's not insignificant.
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Old Oct 8, 2012, 1:27 pm
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Originally Posted by austin_modern
I'm more curious on how much the profit from said revenue increased...
Given that only a small amount of the labor savings from the new contracts and the imposed terms on the pilots became effective on Sept 12 and that a lot more of the savings began on October 1, there likely won't be impressive profits for the month of September. In fact, for every group except the pilots, pay raises were effective on Sept 12, so labor costs will probably show a blip in September compared to the subsequent months.
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