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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (853797)	5/5/2015 9:56:26 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577901

Bankruptcy does not suggest break even numbers. It doesn't suggest otherwise. Steady breakeven probably won't result in bankruptcy (at least if there is some cash buffer and careful management). Wild and often unpredicted swings in profitability around an overall break even level easily can. In any case I said "close to breakeven". I've seen somewhere that in the long run they have made profits overall, but with razor thing profit margins. But even if they had small losses over the long run that would also be "close to breakeven". Long distance railroads as a whole don't run anywhere close to breakeven. Long distance rail lines generally lose money even in good years. Also the industry as a whole can be profitable while particular firms lose money. If the industry as a whole is only close to breakeven while profitability varies widely between firms and over time, you will get a lot of firms with serious losses. As for the industry as a whole, see below for long term data. First link for about all of the history of airlines, the 2nd with data for each year, but only since 1971 and for operating margin (so it doesn't include capital costs and only gives a partial picture). -------- FROM taking foreign holidays to eating out-of-season fruit, once-exotic experiences have become commonplace thanks to the airline industry, which has shrunk the globe in the 60 years or so since commercial flights started in earnest. In those six decades passenger kilometres (the number of flyers multiplied by the distance they travel) have gone from almost zero to more than 5 trillion a year. But though the industry has done much to connect the world, it has done little to line the pockets of the airlines themselves. Despite incredible growth, airlines have not come close to returning the cost of capital, with profit margins of less than 1% on average over that period. In 2012 they made profits of only $4 for every passenger carried. Why has a booming business failed to prosper? economist.com centreforaviation.com