Editing Airline (section)

==Economy==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2020}}

{{See also|Aviation taxation and subsidies}}

In 2017, 4.1 billion passengers have been carried by airlines in 41.9 million commercial scheduled flights (an average payload of {{#expr:4100/41.9round0}} passengers), for 7.75 trillion [[passenger kilometre]]s (an average trip of {{#expr:7750/4.100round0}} km) over 45,091 airline routes served globally.<!--<ref name=ATAGOct2018>--> In 2016, air transport generated $704.4 billion of revenue in 2016, employed 10.2 million workers, supported 65.5 million jobs and $2.7 trillion of economic activity: 3.6% of the global [[GDP]].<ref name=ATAGOct2018>{{cite web |url= https://www.aviationbenefits.org/media/166344/abbb18_full-report_web.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.aviationbenefits.org/media/166344/abbb18_full-report_web.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |publisher= Air Transport Action Group |title= Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders |date= October 2018}}</ref>

In July 2016, the total weekly airline capacity was 181.1 billion [[Available Seat Kilometers]] (+6.9% compared to July 2015): 57.6bn in Asia-Pacific, 47.7bn in Europe, 46.2bn in North America, 12.2bn in Middle East, 12.0bn in Latin America and 5.4bn in Africa.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://html5.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/desktop/stage/default.aspx?pnum=78&edid=e030c749-44c6-4ab0-af51-84e8f4424689 |title= Capacity snapshot |work= Airline Business |date= July–August 2016 |publisher= Flight Global |page= 78}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+Top 150 airline groups<ref name="WorldAirlineRankings2017">{{cite web|date=2017|title=World Airline Rankings|url=https://www.flightglobal.com/asset/18223|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930132154/https://www.flightglobal.com/asset/18223|archive-date=30 September 2017|work=Flight Global}}</ref>
! !! 2016 !! 2015 !! 2014 !! 2013 !! 2012 !! 2011 !! 2010 !! 2009 !! 2008
|-
! Revenue ($bn) 
| 694 || 698 || 704 || 684 || 663 || 634 || 560 || 481 || 540
|-
! Operating result ($bn)
| 58.9 || 65.0 || 30.4 || 27.5 || 20.7 || 21.3 || 32.4 || 1.7 || −15.3
|-
! Operating margin (%)
| 8.5% || 9.3% || 4.3% || 4.0% || 3.1% || 3.4% || 5.8% || 0.4% || −2.8%
|-
! Net result ($bn)
| 34.2 || 42.4 || 11.7 || 15.3 || 4.6 || 0.3 || 19.0 || −5.7 || −32.5
|-
! Net margin (%)
| 4.9% || 6.1% || 1.7% || 2.2% || 0.7% || 0.0% || 3.4% || −1.2% || −6.0%
|}

===Costs===
[[File:virgin atlantic a340-600 g-vyou arp.jpg|thumb|An [[Airbus A340]]-600 of [[Virgin Atlantic]]. In October 2008, Virgin Atlantic offered to combine its operations with [[British Midland International|BMI]] in an effort to reduce operating costs.<ref>{{cite news|last=Robertson|first=David|date=29 October 2008|title=Virgin proposes tieup with BMI and Lufthansa|work=The Times|location=London|url=https://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article5037731.ece|url-status=live|access-date=23 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107164938/http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article5037731.ece|archive-date=7 January 2009}}</ref>]]

Airlines have substantial fixed and operating costs to establish and maintain air services: labor, fuel, airplanes, engines, spares and parts, IT services and networks, airport equipment, airport handling services, booking commissions, advertising, catering, training, [[aviation insurance]] and other costs. Thus all but a small percentage of the income from ticket sales is paid out to a wide variety of external providers or internal cost centers.

Moreover, the industry is structured so that airlines often act as tax collectors. Airline fuel is untaxed because of a series of treaties existing between countries. Ticket prices include a number of fees, taxes and surcharges beyond the control of airlines. Airlines are also responsible for enforcing government regulations. If airlines carry passengers without proper documentation on an international flight, they are responsible for returning them back to the original country.

Analysis of the 1992–1996 period shows that every player in the air transport chain is far more profitable than the airlines, who collect and pass through fees and revenues to them from ticket sales. While airlines as a whole earned 6% return on capital employed (2–3.5% less than the cost of capital), airports earned 10%, catering companies 10–13%, handling companies 11–14%, aircraft lessors 15%, aircraft manufacturers 16%, and global distribution companies more than 30%.<ref>{{citation |author= [[Jean-Cyril Spinetta]] |date= November 2000 |title= The New Economics |work= Air Transport: Global Economics require Global Regulatory Perspectives round table |publisher= IATA-AEA |location= Brussels}}, unpublished, quoted in {{cite book |author= Doganis, R. |date= 2002 |title= Flying off course : the economics of international airlines |edition= 3rd |location= London |publisher= Routledge |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=eR5unZWjOEUC&pg=PA6|page=6|isbn= 9780415213240 }}</ref>

There has been continuing cost competition from [[low cost airline]]s. Many companies emulate [[Southwest Airlines]] in various respects.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2015/10/08/the-southwest-effect-is-alive-and-well-airline-executives-say|title=The Southwest effect is|date=8 October 2015|work=Dallas News|access-date=14 October 2017|language=en}}</ref> The lines between full-service and low-cost airlines have become blurred – e.g., with most "full service" airlines introducing baggage check fees despite Southwest not doing so.

Many airlines in the U.S. and elsewhere have experienced business difficulty. U.S. airlines that have declared [[Chapter 11]] bankruptcy since 1990 have included [[American Airlines]], [[Continental Airlines]] (twice), [[Delta Air Lines]], [[Northwest Airlines]], [[Pan Am]], [[United Airlines]] and [[US Airways]] (twice).

Where an airline has established an engineering base at an airport, then there may be considerable economic advantages in using that same airport as a preferred focus (or "hub") for its scheduled flights.

[[Fuel hedging]] is a [[contractual]] tool used by transportation companies like airlines to reduce their exposure to volatile and potentially rising fuel costs. Several low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines adopt this practice.<!--ref name = economist19jan2015/--> Southwest is credited with maintaining strong business profits between 1999 and the early 2000s due to its fuel hedging policy. Many other airlines are replicating Southwest's hedging policy to control their fuel costs.<ref name = economist19jan2015>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2015/01/19/gambles-that-havent-paid-off|title=Gambles that haven't paid off|newspaper=The Economist|issn=0013-0613|date=19 January 2015}}</ref>

Operating costs for US [[major airline]]s are primarily aircraft [[operating expense]] including [[jet fuel]], [[aircraft maintenance]], [[depreciation]] and [[aircrew]] for 44%, servicing expense for 29% (traffic 11%, passenger 11% and aircraft 7%), 14% for reservations and sales and 13% for [[overheads]] (administration 6% and advertising 2%).<!--<ref name=ICAO20feb2017/>--> An average US major [[Boeing 757]]-200 flies {{cvt|1252|mile|km}} stages 11.3 block hours per day and costs $2,550 per block hour: $923 of ownership, $590 of maintenance, $548 of fuel and $489 of crew; or $13.34 per 186 seats per block hour.<!--<ref name=ICAO20feb2017/>--> For a [[Boeing 737-500]], a low-cost carrier like Southwest have lower operating costs at $1,526 than a full service one like United at $2,974, and higher [[productivity]] with 399,746 [[available seat miles|ASM]] per day against 264,284, resulting in a unit cost of {{#expr:152600/399746round2}} $cts/ASM against {{#expr:297400/264284round2}} $cts/ASM.<ref name=ICAO20feb2017>{{cite web |url= https://www.icao.int/MID/Documents/2017/Aviation%20Data%20and%20Analysis%20Seminar/PPT3%20-%20Airlines%20Operating%20costs%20and%20productivity.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.icao.int/MID/Documents/2017/Aviation%20Data%20and%20Analysis%20Seminar/PPT3%20-%20Airlines%20Operating%20costs%20and%20productivity.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title= Airline Operating Costs and Productivity |date= 20 February 2017 |publisher= ICAO}}</ref>

[[McKinsey]] observes that "newer technology, larger aircraft, and increasingly efficient operations continually drive down the cost of running an airline", from nearly 40 US cents per [[available seat kilometer|ASK]] at the beginning of the jet age, to just above 10 cents since 2000. Those improvements were passed onto the customer due to high competition: fares have been falling throughout the history of airlines.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-transport-and-logistics/our-insights/a-better-approach-to-airline-costs# |title= A better approach to airline costs |date= July 2017 |author= Steve Saxon and Mathieu Weber |publisher= [[McKinsey]]}}</ref>

===Revenue===
[[File:Diagram of an airline Global Distribution System.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Diagram of an airline [[Global Distribution System]]]]

Airlines assign prices to their services in an attempt to maximize profitability. The pricing of airline tickets has become increasingly complicated over the years and is now largely determined by computerized [[yield management]] systems.

Because of the complications in scheduling flights and maintaining profitability, airlines have many loopholes that can be used by the knowledgeable traveler. Many of these airfare secrets are becoming more and more known to the general public, so airlines are forced to make constant adjustments.

Most airlines use differentiated pricing, a form of [[price discrimination]], to sell air services at varying prices simultaneously to different segments. Factors influencing the price include the days remaining until departure, the booked load factor, the forecast of total demand by price point, competitive pricing in force, and variations by day of week of departure and by time of day. Carriers often accomplish this by dividing each cabin of the aircraft (first, business and economy) into a number of [[travel class]]es for pricing purposes.

A complicating factor is that of origin-destination control ("O&D control"). Someone purchasing a ticket from Melbourne to Sydney (as an example) for A$200 is competing with someone else who wants to fly Melbourne to Los Angeles through Sydney on the same flight, and who is willing to pay A$1400. Should the airline prefer the $1400 passenger, or the $200 passenger plus a possible Sydney-Los Angeles passenger willing to pay $1300? Airlines have to make hundreds of thousands of similar pricing decisions daily.

The advent of advanced computerized reservations systems in the late 1970s, most notably [[Sabre (computer system)|Sabre]], allowed airlines to easily perform [[cost-benefit analysis|cost-benefit analyses]] on different pricing structures, leading to almost perfect price discrimination in some cases (that is, filling each seat on an aircraft at the highest price that can be charged without driving the consumer elsewhere).

The intense nature of airfare pricing has led to the term "[[fare war]]" to describe efforts by airlines to undercut other airlines on competitive routes. Through computers, new airfares can be published quickly and efficiently to the airlines' sales channels. For this purpose the airlines use the [[Airline Tariff Publishing Company]] (ATPCO), who distribute latest fares for more than 500 airlines to [[Computer Reservation System]]s across the world.

The extent of these pricing phenomena is strongest in "legacy" carriers. In contrast, low fare carriers usually offer pre-announced and simplified price structure, and sometimes quote prices for each leg of a trip separately.

Computers also allow airlines to predict, with some accuracy, how many passengers will actually fly after making a reservation to fly. This allows airlines to overbook their flights enough to fill the aircraft while accounting for "no-shows", but not enough (in most cases) to force paying passengers off the aircraft for lack of seats, stimulative pricing for low demand flights coupled with [[overbooking]] on high demand flights can help reduce this figure. This is especially crucial during tough economic times as airlines undertake massive cuts to ticket prices to retain demand.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/2009/05/recession-prompts-surge-in-cheap-flights.html |title=Recession 'prompts surge in cheap flights' |publisher=News.cheapflights.co.uk |date=13 May 2009 |access-date=22 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130120521/http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/2009/05/recession-prompts-surge-in-cheap-flights.html |archive-date=30 November 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Over January/February 2018, the cheapest airline surveyed by price comparator [[rome2rio]] was now-defunct [[Tigerair Australia]] with $0.06/km followed by [[AirAsia X]] with $0.07/km, while the most expensive was [[Charterlines, Inc.]] with $1.26/km followed by [[Buddha Air]] with $1.18/km.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.rome2rio.com/labs/2018-global-flight-price-ranking/ |title= 2018 Global Flight Price Ranking: What's the world's cheapest airline? |publisher= [[rome2rio]] |date= 16 April 2018}}</ref>

For the [[IATA]], the global airline industry [[revenue]] was $754 billion in 2017 for a $38.4 billion collective [[Profit (accounting)|profit]], and should rise by 10.7% to $834 billion in 2018 for a $33.8 billion profit forecast, down by 12% due to rising [[jet fuel]] and [[Workforce|labor]] costs.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/airlines-formula-protecting-profits-higher-fares |title= Airlines' Formula For Protecting Profits: Higher Fares |date= 12 June 2018 |author= Jens Flottau, Adrian Schofield and Aaron Karp |work= [[Aviation Week & Space Technology]]}}</ref>

<!--Elasticity-->
The demand for air transport will be less [[Elasticity (economics)|elastic]] for [[flight length|longer flights]] than for shorter flights, and more elastic for leisure travel than for [[business travel]].<ref>{{cite web|author=David W. Gillen|author2=William G. Morrison|author3=Christopher Stewart|date=6 October 2008|title=Air Travel Demand Elasticities: Concepts, Issues and Measurement|url=https://www.fin.gc.ca/consultresp/Airtravel/airtravStdy_-eng.asp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428190326/https://www.fin.gc.ca/consultresp/Airtravel/airtravStdy_-eng.asp|archive-date=28 April 2009|publisher=[[Department of Finance Canada]]}}</ref>

<!--Seasonality-->
Airlines often have a strong [[seasonality]], with traffic low in winter and peaking in summer. In Europe the most extreme market are the [[Greek islands]] with July/August having more than ten times the winter traffic, as [[Jet2]] is the most seasonal among [[low-cost carrier]]s with July having seven times the January traffic, whereas [[legacy carrier]]s are much less with only 85/115% variability.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.anna.aero/2017/03/01/greek-islands-jet2-com-seasonality-losers-europe/ |title= Seasonality: Jet2.com and Greek Islands most extreme in anna.aero leisure-legacy comparison |work= Airline Network News and Analysis |date= 1 March 2017 }}</ref>

===Assets and financing===
[[File:Maslounge.jpg|thumb|The 'Golden Lounge' of [[Malaysia Airlines]] at [[Kuala Lumpur International Airport]] (KLIA).]]
Airline financing is quite complex, since airlines are highly leveraged operations. Not only must they purchase (or lease) new airliner bodies and engines regularly, they must make major long-term fleet decisions with the goal of meeting the demands of their markets while producing a fleet that is relatively economical to operate and maintain; comparably Southwest Airlines and their reliance on a single airplane type (the [[Boeing 737]] and derivatives), with the now defunct [[Eastern Air Lines]] which operated 17 different aircraft types, each with varying pilot, engine, maintenance, and support needs.

A second financial issue is that of [[Hedge (finance)|hedging]] [[Petroleum|oil]] and [[fuel]] purchases, which are usually second only to [[Labour (economics)|labor]] in its relative cost to the company. However, with the current high fuel prices it has become the largest cost to an airline. Legacy airlines, compared with new entrants, have been hit harder by rising fuel prices partly due to the running of older, less fuel efficient aircraft.<ref name="Bamber, G.J., Gittell, J.H., Kochan, T.A. & von Nordenflytch, A. 2009"/> While hedging instruments can be expensive, they can easily pay for themselves many times over in periods of increasing fuel costs, such as in the 2000–2005 period.

In view of the congestion apparent at many international [[airport]]s, the ownership of slots at certain airports (the right to take-off or land an aircraft at a particular time of day or night) has become a significant tradable asset for many airlines. Clearly take-off slots at popular times of the day can be critical in attracting the more profitable business traveler to a given airline's flight and in establishing a competitive advantage against a competing airline.

If a particular city has two or more airports, market forces will tend to attract the less profitable routes, or those on which competition is weakest, to the less congested airport, where slots are likely to be more available and therefore cheaper. For example, [[Reagan National Airport]] attracts profitable routes due partly to its congestion, leaving less-profitable routes to [[Baltimore-Washington International Airport]] and [[Dulles International Airport]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wtop.com/baltimore/2018/11/which-d-c-area-airport-is-busiest/|title=Which DC-area airport is busiest?|date=21 November 2018|website=WTOP|language=en|access-date=17 March 2020}}</ref>

Other factors, such as surface transport facilities and onward connections, will also affect the relative appeal of different airports and some long-distance flights may need to operate from the one with the longest runway. For example, [[LaGuardia Airport]] is the preferred airport for most of [[Manhattan]] due to its proximity, while long-distance routes must use [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]]'s longer runways.

===Airline alliances ===
{{Main|Airline alliance}}

The first [[airline alliance]] was formed in the 1930s when Pan Am and its subsidiary, [[Panair do Brasil]], agreed to codeshare routes in Latin America when they overlapped with each other.{{citation needed|reason=Do not add SimpleFlying source as it is unreliable per WP:SIMPLEFLYING|date=May 2024}} {{Major airline alliances}}

[[Codesharing]] involves one airline selling tickets for another airline's flights under its own airline code. An early example of this was [[Japan Airlines|Japan Airlines' (JAL)]] codesharing partnership with [[Aeroflot]] in the 1960s on [[Tokyo]]–[[Moscow]] flights; Aeroflot operated the flights using Aeroflot aircraft, but JAL sold tickets for the flights as if they were JAL flights. {{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}Another example was the [[Austrian Airlines|Austrian]]–[[Sabena]] partnership on the [[Vienna]]–[[Brussels]]–[[New York City|New York]]/JFK route during the late '60s, using a Sabena [[Boeing 707]] with Austrian [[Aircraft livery|livery]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Since airline reservation requests are often made by city-pair (such as "show me flights from Chicago to Düsseldorf"), an airline that can codeshare with another airline for a variety of routes might be able to be listed as indeed offering a Chicago–[[Düsseldorf]] flight. The passenger is advised however, that airline no. 1 operates the flight from say Chicago to Amsterdam (for example), and airline no. 2 operates the continuing flight (on a different airplane, sometimes from another terminal) to Düsseldorf. Thus the primary rationale for code sharing is to expand one's service offerings in city-pair terms to increase sales.

A more recent development is the [[airline alliance]], which became prevalent in the late 1990s. These alliances can act as virtual mergers to get around government restrictions. The largest are [[Star Alliance]], [[SkyTeam]] and [[Oneworld]], and these accounted for over 60% of global commercial air traffic {{As of|2015||df=|lc=y}}.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=India Sees Highest Domestic Market Growth in 2015 |url=https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2016-07-05-01/ |access-date=24 January 2020 |website=www.iata.org |language=en |archive-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124173206/https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2016-07-05-01/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Alliances of airlines coordinate their passenger service programs (such as [[Airport lounge|lounges]] and [[frequent-flyer program]]s), offer special [[Interlining|interline]] tickets and often engage in extensive [[codesharing]] (sometimes systemwide). These are increasingly integrated business combinations—sometimes including cross-equity arrangements—in which products, service standards, schedules, and airport facilities are standardized and combined for higher efficiency. One of the first airlines to start an alliance with another airline was [[KLM]], who partnered with [[Northwest Airlines]]. Both airlines later entered the SkyTeam alliance after the [[Air France-KLM|fusion of KLM and Air France]] in 2004.

Often the companies combine [[Information technology|IT]] operations, or purchase fuel and aircraft as a bloc to achieve higher bargaining power. However, the alliances have been most successful at purchasing invisible supplies and services, such as fuel. Airlines usually prefer to purchase items visible to their passengers to differentiate themselves from local competitors. If an airline's main domestic competitor flies Boeing airliners, then the airline may prefer to use Airbus aircraft regardless of what the rest of the alliance chooses.

=== Largest airlines ===
{{main|World's largest airlines}}
The [[world's largest airlines]] can be defined in several ways. {{As of|2019||df=}}, [[American Airlines Group]] was the largest by fleet size, [[passenger]]s carried and [[revenue passenger mile]]. [[Delta Air Lines]] was the largest by [[revenue]], [[asset]]s value and [[market capitalization]]. [[Lufthansa Group]] was the largest by number of [[employee]]s, [[FedEx Express]] by freight [[tonne-kilometres]], [[Turkish Airlines]] by number of countries served and [[UPS Airlines]] by number of destinations served<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=UPS Fact Sheet |url=https://www.pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=FactSheets&id=1426321563187-193 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231144152/https://pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=FactSheets&id=1426321563187-193 |archive-date=December 31, 2019 |access-date=24 January 2020 |website=UPS Pressroom}}</ref> (though [[United Airlines]] was the largest passenger airline by number of destinations served).<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |title=Corporate fact sheet |url=https://hub.united.com/Corporate-Fact-Sheet |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205134015/https://hub.united.com/corporate-fact-sheet/ |archive-date=5 December 2019 |access-date=24 January 2020 |website=United Hub |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite web |title=Titans: The Biggest Airlines in the World in 2019 |url=https://skyrefund.com/en/blog/biggest-airlines-in-the-world |access-date=24 January 2020 |website=skyrefund.com}}</ref>

===State support===
Historically, air travel has survived largely through state support, whether in the form of equity or subsidies. The airline industry as a whole has made a cumulative loss during its 100-year history.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/airlines/story/0,,1715861,00.html Wings of Desire], ''The Guardian'', 23 February 2006</ref><ref>[http://www.johnkay.com/2005/09/27/airlines-and-the-canine-features-of-unprofitable-industries/ Airlines and the canine features of unprofitable industries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031011242/http://www.johnkay.com/2005/09/27/airlines-and-the-canine-features-of-unprofitable-industries/ |date=October 31, 2019 }}, ''Financial Times'', 27 September 2005</ref>

One argument is that [[positive externalities]], such as higher growth due to global mobility, outweigh the microeconomic losses and justify continuing government intervention. A historically high level of government intervention in the airline industry can be seen as part of a wider political consensus on strategic forms of transport, such as [[highway]]s and [[Rail transport|railways]], both of which receive public funding in most parts of the world. Although many countries continue to operate state-owned or parastatal airlines, many large airlines today are privately owned and are therefore governed by microeconomic principles to maximize shareholder profit.<ref>Rigas Doganis, "Alternative Pricing Strategies", ''Flying Off Course: The Economics of International Airlines'' (London: Routledge, 1991), 267-69. {{ISBN|1134887779}}</ref>

In December 1991, the collapse of Pan Am, an airline often credited for shaping the international airline industry, highlighted the financial complexities faced by major airline companies.

Following the [[Airline Deregulation Act|1978 deregulation]], U.S. carriers did not manage to make an aggregate [[economic profit|profit]] for 12 years in 31, including four years where combined [[economic loss|losses]] amounted to $10 billion, but rebounded with eight consecutive years of profits since 2010, including its four with over $10 billion profits.<!--<ref name=AvWeek14May2018/>--> They drop loss-making routes, avoid [[fare war]]s and [[market share]] battles, limit [[Seating capacity|capacity]] growth, add [[airline hub|hub]] feed with [[regional jet]]s to increase their [[profitability]]. They change [[schedule]]s to create more connections, buy used aircraft, reduce international frequencies and leverage [[partnership]]s to optimize capacities and benefit from overseas connectivity.<ref name="AvWeek14May2018">{{cite news|author=Sean Broderick|date=14 May 2018|title=Big U.S. Airlines Seek Long-term Profitability|work=Aviation Week & Space Technology|url=http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/big-us-airlines-seek-long-term-profitability|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180514044421/http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/big-us-airlines-seek-long-term-profitability|archive-date=14 May 2018}}</ref>