Good Times for the Airlines

Warren Buffett said: “How do you become a millionaire? Make a billion dollars and then buy an airline.”

At the 2013 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, when asked a question about airline investing Buffett responded: “Investors have poured their money into airlines and airline manufacturers for 100 years with terrible results. It’s been a death trap for investors. You’ve got huge fixed costs, you’ve got strong labor unions and you’ve got commodity pricing. That is not a great recipe for success.”

However, 2013 was a good year for some airline stocks.

Air Canada stock increased almost 320%

Southwest Airlines 85%

And now coming to the title of the post

“The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced an upward revision to its industry financial outlook. For 2013 airlines are expected to return a global net profit of $12.9 billion. This is expected to improve to a net profit of $19.7 billion in 2014. Both are improvements on the September forecast which anticipated an industry net profit of $11.7 billion in 2013 increasing to $16.4 billion in 2014.

The upward revision reflects lower jet fuel prices over the forecast period as well as improvements to the industry’s structure and efficiency already visible in quarterly results this year. Passenger markets continue to outperform the cargo business which remains stagnant both on volumes and revenues.”

From IATA website Airline Financial Outlook Strengthens

 

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