Strong airline industry metrics continue to underpin growth in US jet fuel demand, as carriers add flights to accommodate higher passenger flows. Improved profitability is coming mainly from the steep drop in fuel costs, since revenues have flatlined for a group of major carriers in the first nine months, according to a media briefing by Airlines for America (A4A) last week (JFI Aug.24’15). Consumers are seeing lower airfares which have fallen by 4.3% system-wide. The steepest declines of 11.2% and 8.6% occurred on routes to the Pacific and Latin America, respectively, due in part to the stronger dollar. Domestic passenger yields -the average airfare paid per mile flown -fell by 3.1% in the first three quarters. As a result, operating revenues through September totaled $120.7 billion and were just 0.3% higher than the year-earlier period. Expenses dropped by 8.8% to $99.3 billion on a 36% plunge in fuel costs that brought outlays for jet fuel down to 24% of total expenses. That translated into pretax earnings of $18.8 billion and a profit margin of 15.6%, up from 7.7% in 2014. “For now, US airline profitability is finally in line with US companies in the Standard & Poor
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