John Heimlich
John Heimlich
absolute economy economy-and-economics factors
I still see the economy as absolute the No. 1 factor, (even with) as many other factors as there are nowadays,
crappy difference fuel prices record year
Fuel prices are the difference between record profitability (for some airlines) and a year of crappy losses.
accept carriers domestic fuel high market painful passenger reality reflect unwilling
The painful reality for passenger carriers is that the domestic market has been unwilling to accept fares that reflect high fuel prices.
call cost count fourth grace quarter quite saving
When your second-highest cost plummets, that's huge. I call it the saving grace of the fourth quarter after the (federal assistance). But we're not quite as sanguine that we can count on that this year.
primarily problem rather traffic
We don't yet have traffic back where we need it, but yes, the problem (of losses) is primarily fares rather than traffic,
cash helpful matters payroll relates taxes
Everything that relates to cash matters now. It would have been helpful to have the payroll taxes deferred, but this will go part of the way.
enormous fuel jet paying
We're paying enormous amounts for jet fuel right now. It's insane.
crazier expecting last
We're not expecting it to be much crazier than last summer.
fuel high
There's been an acceleration of capacity-cutting with high fuel prices.
hole needed
This is one more thing we needed like a hole in the head.
flying horrific less number people
The number of people flying is less horrific than it was shortly after the 11th.
business certainly hurt short travel
There's a lot of business travel in short haul. That certainly hurt us.
airlines cost fund revenue time trust
Every time the trust fund is going down, they say we're going to have to come to the airlines for more revenue. I say you don't have a revenue problem, you have a cost problem.
biggest fuel instead operating pie prices question second
There's no question we never anticipated that kind of fuel reduction, ... We thought fuel prices would be going up, and instead the second biggest part of our operating pie had a big reduction.