I took some time this evening to review AA's latest quarterly filing (4 NOV 2005) and try to work out their cost per seat mile for each class of seat on most of their aircraft. If these costs are anywhere near accurate, then I think we can all agree that there are some routes where F/J costs are fairly reasonable, whereas other routes are a downright rip-off.

I assumed the following:

• Expenses: $4,846,000,000
• Available Seat Miles Systemwide (excluding Eagle): 45,613,000,000
• Cost per Available Seat Mile (CASM): ~$0.1063 (I rounded to $0.11)
• I used SeatGuru to calculate seat area used for each class of service. Premium cabins have a higher seat width in my calculations to account for additional coach seats that could be fitted in the space taken up by Premium cabin seats (i.e. - 5 across on S80 Y vs. 4 across in S80 F: I added up the width of the 5 Y seats, then divided by 4 to get the F seat width).

Here are my seat width calculations:

S80
---
F: 21.875" Width * 38.0" Pitch = 831.25 Seat Area
Y: 17.500" Width * 31.0" Pitch = 542.50 Seat Area
** F seats occupy 54% more seat area than Y.


738
---
F: 25.5" Width * 40.0" Pitch = 1020.0 Seat Area
Y: 17.0" Width * 31.0" Pitch = 527.0 Seat Area
** F seats occupy 94% more seat area than Y.


757 (AA Version)
---
F: 25.8" Width * 39.0" Pitch = 1006.2 Seat Area
Y: 17.2" Width * 31.0" Pitch = 533.2 Seat Area
** F seats occupy 89% more seat area than Y.


763
F: 20.07” Width * 62.0” Pitch = 1244.34 Seat Area
Y: 17.20” Width * 31.0” Pitch = 533.20 Seat Area
** F seats occupy 134% more seat area than Y.


762
F: 26.8” Width * 62.0” Pitch = 1661.6 Seat Area
J: 20.1” Width * 50.0” Pitch = 1005.0 Seat Area
Y: 17.2” Width * 32.0” Pitch = 550.4 Seat Area
** J seats occupy 83% more seat area than Y.
** F seats occupy 202% more seat area than Y.


777 (Suite Config)
F: 40.95” Width * 69.0” Pitch = 2825.55 Seat Area
J: 23.40” Width * 60.0” Pitch = 1404.00 Seat Area
Y: 18.20” Width * 31.0” Pitch = 564.20 Seat Area
** J seats occupy 149% more seat area than Y.
** F seats occupy 401% more seat area than Y.





CASM Calculations

The CASM calculations below take into account the percentage of space occupied on the aircraft by each seating class. Total cost per seat mile will average to approximately $0.11.

S80 (16 F / 120 Y)
---
F: $0.1694
Y: $0.1021


738 (16 F / 132 Y)
---
F: $0.2134
Y: $0.0975


757 (22 F / 166 Y)
---
F: $0.2079
Y: $0.0971


763 (30 F / 189 Y)
---
F: $0.2574
Y: $0.0866


762 (9 F / 30 J / 126 Y)
---
F: $0.3322
J: $0.2013
Y: $0.0724


777 (16 F / 35 J / 198 Y)
---
F: $0.4411
J: $0.2739
Y: $0.0543




One additional thing to remember when trying to calculate a reasonable fare based off of these numbers is that the CASM applies even to unsold seats. So with a system wide load factor of 81.2% (I don’t think they break it out by class anywhere), you’ll have to add 25%+ just to account for “spoilage”. Revenue generated by cargo and overbooking would help to offset some of the spoilage, I suppose. The cost does include catering, which would be the summer/fall 2005 meals.


My mind is numb, I hope this sparks some interesting debate.


P.S. – I know I have too much time on my hands!