BTS data shows largest airlines reporting larger net profits

The largest scheduled passenger airlines reported a net profit of $2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2013, an increase from a profit of $700 million in the second quarter of 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported in preliminary data. BTS reported that the largest airlines carried 80.4 percent of U.S. airlines’ scheduled service passengers in the second quarter of 2013. In addition to the Net Income reports, the largest airlines reported a 9.0 percent pre-tax operating profit margin in the second quarter of 2013, up from a 6.0 percent profit margin in the