The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics said on Thursday that domestic and foreign airlines serving the U.S. carried a record 965 million passengers in 2017, up 3.4% from the previous record of 933.1 million passengers in the prior year.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV, Financial) and American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL, Financial), two of Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)’s major airline holdings, reported top-three numbers of domestic and international enplanements.
Domestic enplanements dominated by four carriers
Figure 1 shows the total U.S.-based passenger boardings for the top 10 carriers. The “Big Four” airlines, which include American, United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL, Financial), Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL, Financial) and Southwest, carried approximately 57% of total passengers as Figure 2 illustrates.
Figure 1. Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Figure 2. Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Southwest carried approximately 157.7 million passengers during the year, up 3.9% from the prior year. While the Dallas Love Field-based airline had the highest number of enplanements, Delta and American were not far behind: the Atlanta-based airline served approximately 145.6 million passengers, slightly higher than American’s 144.8 million.
American remains top international carrier for the year
Although it increased international enplanements by 32.5% year over year, Southwest only ranks ninth in such boardings among global airlines. Fort Worth-based American served about 28.4 million passengers on international flights, the highest among the carriers. Figure 3 summarizes the total international boardings for the top 10 carriers.
Figure 3. Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics
American CEO Doug Parker said that the company had a “remarkable” year, highlighted by an 8.3% year-over-year revenue growth driven by strong passenger yields across the company’s geographic regions. Figure 4 shows the historical revenue trend for American.
Figure 4
American announced several initiatives in its 2018 annual report, including a “premium economy” class, a $200 million equity stake in China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. (ZNH) and new international routes to cities like Prague, Czech Republic; Budapest, Hungary; Reykjavik, Iceland and Venice, Italy.
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Figure 5: American’s revenue trend and total U.S. enplanements in one chart
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