As part of their third-quarter revenue, all U.S. passenger airlines collected a total of $924 million in baggage fees and $652 million from reservation change fees from July through September 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reports.
Baggage fees and reservation change fees are the only ancillary fees paid by passengers that are reported to BTS as separate items. Other fees, such as revenue from seating assignments and on-board sales of food, beverages, pillows, blankets, and entertainment are combined in different categories and cannot be identified separately, BTS says.
The largest scheduled passenger airlines reported a 6.4 percent profit margin in the third quarter of 2012, down from 6.8 percent in the third quarter of 2011, the BTS said.
BTS said the 10 largest airlines, as ranked by total number of passengers in the third quarter, achieved an operating profit margin - as a group - in each of the last six quarters. Together, they posted a profit of $2.4 billion with all of the large carriers reporting an operating profit.
These 10 airlines carried 77.5 percent of U.S. airlines' scheduled service passengers in the third quarter of 2012.
The top 10 airlines reported $1.4 billion in Net Income in the second quarter, BTS said. Net Income and Operating Profit or Loss are two different measures of airline financial performance., BTS said. Operating Profit or Loss is calculated from operating revenues and expenses. Net Income may include non-operating income and expenses, nonrecurring items or income taxes.
Fees are included for calculations of Net Income, Operating Revenue and Operating Profit or Loss.
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