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cyberentomology OP t1_isxxmu6 wrote

Data Source: UAL 22Q3 Financial Results (October 18, 2022)

Tool: SankeyMatic

Some Interesting Observations:

  • They're getting jet fuel for only $3.80 a gallon... Hell of a deal, even better than American (which I posted yesterday)
  • Fleet-wide, they're averaging about 60 passenger miles per gallon. That's pretty damned efficient...
  • Almost double the profit margin of American, for similar scale of operations and fleet - Most of the difference is in the amount they pay to lease aircraft - United owns most of its fleet out of capex, while AA rents theirs out of opex. Good reasons for either approach.
  • Average annual (loaded) payroll per FTE is about $125K, significantly better than AA.
  • Revenue is about 20 cents per passenger-mile. They keep 1.5 cents of that. They make an average of about 20 bucks per passenger on a flight.
  • Taxes! The government is making about as much money on the airline as the airline is making on the airline.
    • $211M in federal income tax
    • $185M in federal payroll tax
    • $241M in federal excise tax on jet fuel (24.4 cents/gallon) -- this is largely what funds the FAA.
    • State Taxes on jet fuel are unknown but state jet fuel tax per gallon in their US hubs:
      • Texas (IAH) 20 cents
      • Illinois (ORD): 1.1 cents
      • California (SFO): 2.0 cents
      • Colorado (DEN): 4 cents
      • New Jersey (EWR): 13.56 cents
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HobbitFoot t1_isy0l5k wrote

Where is United mileage program? United has effectively made the argument that its mileage program is worth more than the company as a whole.

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ihavethebestmarriage t1_isy1bwe wrote

would be interesting to see how the revenue splits out by class of seats.

I've heard that first and biz class fares far exceed coach fare revenues... but it's hard to believe

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Accidental-Genius t1_isy1p7j wrote

I don’t feel as bad for accidentally taking the cloth napkins anymore.

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FormerKarmaKing t1_isy886i wrote

Maybe you meant MENA (Middle East North Africa) instead MEIA? But nice work overall.

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cyberentomology OP t1_isy91le wrote

Replying to ihavethebestmarriage (#143,166)

United doesn’t break it out in their reports (but Delta does, I just posted that one). Would definitely be interesting to see how that breaks down between airlines.

Delta’s passenger revenue is about 50% main cabin, 40% premium, and the rest is award travel and travel-related services.

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cyberentomology OP t1_isy9t3q wrote

Replying to HobbitFoot (#143,112)

Right?

The highest state jet fuel excise tax in the nation is Kansas at 26 cents (followed by DC at 23.5, Arkansas at 22.8, and Indiana at 21). Although Atlanta also levies an 8.4% sales tax on it (half local and half state), which at current prices tacks on about 30-35 cents a gallon.

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mmmmm_pi t1_isye9qy wrote

Replying to cyberentomology (#142,899)

You're totally crushing these sankey diagrams. Thanks for making them.

As you prepared this, did you get a sense of what made up the "Other/Special" expense category? That could of course be anything and is so wonderfully vague.

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cyberentomology OP t1_isyerkj wrote

Replying to mmmmm_pi (#144,039)

The quarterly report didn’t really get into it much, but Other (income) is usually where things like loyalty programs, credit cards, commissions, etc come in (at least the parts that aren’t specifically related to travel redemptions). Delta gets into much more detail, perhaps United will do so in their annual report.

Other (expenses) is stuff like crew hotels and ground transportation, aircraft catering, etc.

Sankey diagrams are kind of low-effort, but they’re very well suited to things that flow, like rivers, and money.

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guberhardt t1_isypqhf wrote

The fact that corporate income tax is only 18.3% catches my attention

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mmmmm_pi t1_isyrjhm wrote

Replying to cyberentomology (#144,111)

Thanks for pulling that up! Way above and beyond any expectations I had to answer a stranger's questions.

Surprising to see "crew hotels" plus things like catering and ground handling fall under this category. I realize hotels aren't a direct part of compensation, but it's such a meaningful operating expense that I would have expected it to get broken out, like some category of "Flight Support Operations" or some such thing.

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cyberentomology OP t1_isywpnw wrote

Replying to guberhardt (#144,792)

That’s close enough to the statutory rate that is not particularly significant. They may have some capex that could offset some of their tax liability, or they may have overprovisioned in a previous quarter.

It could be that some of it is also subject to tax outside the US at a lower rate.

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LsMecenas t1_it27zcg wrote

what is the name of this graph?

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LsMecenas t1_it280j1 wrote

what is the name of this graph?

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