Item 6. Selected Financial Data
The following financial information, for the five years ended December 31, 2020, has been derived from the
Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. This information should be viewed in conjunction with the
Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere herein. The Company provides the
operating data below because these statistics are commonly used in the airline industry and, therefore, allow readers
to compare the Company’s performance against its results for prior periods, as well as against the performance of
the Company’s peers.
Year ended December 31,
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016
Financial Data (in millions, except per share
amounts):
Operating revenues
$ 9,048 $ 22,428 $ 21,965 $ 21,146 $ 20,289
Operating expenses
12,864 19,471 18,759 17,739 16,767
Operating income (loss)
(3,816) 2,957 3,206 3,407 3,522
Other expenses (income) net
440 — 42 142 72
Income (loss) before taxes
(4,256) 2,957 3,164 3,265 3,450
Provision (benefit) for income taxes
(1,182) 657 699 (92) 1,267
Net income (loss)
$ (3,074) $ 2,300 $ 2,465 $ 3,357 $ 2,183
Net income (loss) per share, basic
$ (5.44) $ 4.28 $ 4.30 $ 5.58 $ 3.48
Net income (loss) per share, diluted
$ (5.44) $ 4.27 $ 4.29 $ 5.57 $ 3.45
Cash dividends per common share
$ 0.180 $ 0.700 $ 0.605 $ 0.475 $ 0.375
Total assets at period-end
$ 34,588 $ 25,895 $ 26,243 $ 25,110 $ 23,286
Long-term obligations at period-end
$ 10,111 $ 1,846 $ 2,771 $ 3,320 $ 2,821
Stockholders’ equity at period-end
$ 8,876 $ 9,832 $ 9,853 $ 9,641 $ 7,784
Operating Data:
Revenue passengers carried (000s)
54,088 134,056 134,890 130,256 124,720
Enplaned passengers (000s)
67,785 162,681 163,606 157,677 151,740
Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) (in millions)
(a)
54,221 131,345 133,322 129,041 124,798
Available seat miles (ASMs) (in millions)
(b)
103,456 157,254 159,795 153,811 148,522
Load factor
(c)
52.4 % 83.5 % 83.4 % 83.9 % 84.0 %
Average length of passenger haul (miles)
1,002 980 988 991 1,001
Average aircraft stage length (miles)
743 748 757 754 760
Trips flown
897,540 1,367,727 1,375,030 1,347,893 1,311,149
Seats flown (000s)
(d)
137,405 206,390 207,223 200,879 193,168
Seats per trip
(e)
153.1 150.9 150.7 149.0 147.3
Average passenger fare
$ 141.72 $ 154.98 $ 151.64 $ 151.73 $ 152.89
Passenger revenue yield per RPM (cents)
(f)
14.14 15.82 15.34 15.32 15.28
Operating revenues per ASM (cents)
(g)(j)
8.75 14.26 13.75 13.75 13.66
Passenger revenue per ASM (cents)
(h)
7.41 13.21 12.80 12.85 12.84
Operating expenses per ASM (cents)
(i)
12.43 12.38 11.74 11.53 11.29
Operating expenses per ASM, excluding fuel (cents)
10.65 9.62 8.85 8.88 8.73
Operating expenses per ASM, excluding fuel and
profitsharing (cents)
10.65 9.19 8.51 8.53 8.34
Fuel costs per gallon, including fuel tax
$ 1.45 $ 2.09 $ 2.20 $ 1.99 $ 1.90
Fuel costs per gallon, including fuel tax, economic
$ 1.49 $ 2.09 $ 2.20 $ 2.06 $ 2.00
Fuel consumed, in gallons (millions)
1,273 2,077 2,094 2,045 1,996
Active fulltime equivalent Employees
56,537 (j) 60,767 58,803 56,110 53,536
Aircraft at end of period
718 (k)(l) 747 (k) 750 706 723
(a) A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile. Also referred to as "traffic," which is a measure of demand for a given period.
(b) An available seat mile is one seat (empty or full) flown one mile. Also referred to as "capacity," which is a measure of the space available to carry
passengers in a given period.
(c) Revenue passenger miles divided by available seat miles.
(d) Seats flown is calculated using total number of seats available by aircraft type multiplied by the total trips flown by the same aircraft type during a
particular period.
(e) Seats per trip is calculated by dividing seats flown by trips flown.
(f) Calculated as passenger revenue divided by revenue passenger miles. Also referred to as "yield," this is the average cost paid by a paying passenger to
fly one mile, which is a measure of revenue production and fares.
(g) Calculated as operating revenues divided by available seat miles. Also referred to as "operating unit revenues" or "RASM," this is a measure of
operating revenue production based on the total available seat miles flown during a particular period.
51