Make big profit

4 Responses to “What is the average profit made on the average 747 flight?”

1. RPM, on July 19th, 2010 at 1:06 pm Said:

   You’re missing one important element in determining if a flight is profitable or not – cargo.

   If the average sell rate is strong enough to counter the additional jet fuel burned – this can be an important variable to the profitability of the flight.

2. Howard L, on July 21st, 2010 at 8:48 pm Said:

   There are so many different airlines operating the 747 and they all have such different cost structures that any “average” would be a almost meaningless. I’ll give it a shot using the link provided which gives an excellent picture of airline economics. The link is based on a 737 and shows a profit of 545 pounds on a single flight.

   Since a 747 carries about 3X as many passengers and flies longer routes so the fares I’ll guess are about 3X as high my guess is 3.000 pounds per flight based on 2003 pounds.

   How long before it becomes profitable? Probably never. There have been dozens of attempts to start a new airline over the last 5 years or so using every conceivable business model and every one I know of has either gone bankrupt or is in financial difficulty. The most successful one I know of is Kingfisher which has become the largest airline in India over the last 5 years and is still losing money.

3. Fly B, on July 22nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm Said:

   Sorry I can’t give you any numbers… but are you asking profit or revenue? I can tell you that nearly no airline in the world is currently turning a “profit” fully loaded 747 or otherwise… The airline industry is nearly in as bad shape as the auto industry, except there will be no bailouts for the airlines.

4. Techwing, on July 23rd, 2010 at 10:25 pm Said:

   It depends on a great many variables.

   Some flights, especially certain flights between major international destinations, may make enough money on cargo alone to pay for the flight, which makes all the passenger ticket revenue pure profit. Recent increases in the costs of operation (especially fuel costs) may have eroded this margin, though.

   In the days before deregulation, many minor flights were operated at a loss by airlines, and subsidized by more profitable flights. It was possible in those days to take, say, a 727 between two airports and be one of only five or six passengers on the flight. After deregulation, airlines stopped flying any routes that didn’t make money.

   The rules are pretty much the same for any size of aircraft.

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