preview

Southwest Airlines Profitable

Best Essays

Southwest Airlines Fuel Hedging and Relations to Profitability

Abstract

In order to stay airborne, a passenger airline has to consistently generate profits. Profits come only from paying passengers, hence all stratagems must be customer oriented. In a scenario where there are many airlines competing with each other, one way of attracting passengers is to keep the cost of flying low, while providing value for money. On the other hand, expenses must tightly controlled to reach and stay at the lowest possible. Certain expenses are unavoidable; however, one variable that can be kept low through decisive planning and foresight is the cost of fuel, which, at best, can be called volatile. A good way to achieve this is by hedging fuel cost, …show more content…

Fuel has consistently been one of the largest expense categories for domestic airlines, ranking second only to personnel expenses. During 2003, fuel costs represented, on average, over 16% of the total operating expenses for all U.S. domestic airlines studied by Richard Cobbs and Alex Wolf (2004). Moreover, airlines are generally unable to increase fares to offset any significant increase in fuel costs. From 2001 to 2003, these same airlines experienced a 25.9% compound annual increase in jet fuel costs while average airline pricing decreased by 0.1%, as measured by revenue per available seat mile (Cobbs and Wolf, 2004). Jet fuel costs have substantially risen over the past several years putting consistent pressure on airlines to maintain positive cash flows. Any saving in fuel costs works out to profit earned.

In fuel-intensive arenas such as the Airlines Industry, high and volatile fuel prices can have a significant impact on the bottom line, not to mention adding to the difficult task of budgeting for future fuel expenditures. If fuel costs are not actively managed, they can lead a company into losses. Airlines can mitigate their exposure to volatile and potentially rising fuel costs, as well as natural gas and electricity costs, through hedging. Hedging allows the fuel market participants (companies that consume large

Get Access