FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REVENUE TRACK REPORT
3) WHAT ARE THE RED AND BLUE LINES?
4) WHY DO THE 1990s LOOK WRONG?
5) IS INTERNATIONAL DATA INCLUDED?
6) WHY NOT COMBINE WITH SEAT SHARE FOR UNDER/OVER PERFORMANCE?
8) HOW IS REVENUE CALCULATED? WHAT HAPPENS WITH BAG FEES AND SUCH?
2) WHAT IS INCLUDED?
This is point-of-sale domestic revenue by airport (in green), back to 1993. Data is shown for Residents and Visitors. Passengers connecting through the airport are not included, but passengers connecting to being or end their trip at this airport are included. Two trend lines are included. The red trendline shows what would have happened if the market had grown at the USA average since 1993. The blue trend line shows if the market had grown at the USA average since the end of 2019 and prior to COVID. The lines are intended to give perspective on whether the airport is under or over performing on ticket sales relative to the rest of the USA. Residents and Visitors are shown separately to provide greater perspective.
3) WHAT ARE THE RED AND BLUE LINES?
Two trend lines are included. The red trendline shows what would have happened if the market had grown at the USA average since 1993. The blue trend line shows if the market had grown at the USA average since the end of 2019 and prior to COVID. The lines are intended to give perspective on whether the airport is under or over performing on ticket sales relative to the rest of the USA. Residents and Visitors are shown separately to provide greater perspective.
4) WHY DO THE 1990s LOOK WRONG?
Southwest began life as an intra-state carrier and was not directly controlled by the Civil Aeronautics Board and its successor regulatory entity under the Department of Transportation (DOT). As a result, Southwest was exempted from many data reporting requirements for much of its early existence. After the Airline Deregulation Act took effect in the late 1970s, things began to change and Southwest ultimately decided there were great opportunities afforded it by shedding its regulatory status as an intra-state carrier. This transition meant Southwest needed, among other things, to begin reporting many different types of data to the Department of Transportation on things like traffic, fares, etc. Southwest argued that suddenly having to provide this data was a significant hardship and obtained numerous deferrals allowing it to delay reporting and issues tied to this continued into the 1990s. The end result is that for markets that had Southwest service in the 1990s, their data is often missing or inaccurate.
5) IS INTERNATIONAL DATA INCLUDED?
No. The DOT imposes an additional 90 day data lag on international data. Additionally, the DOT imposes citizenship restrictions on the use of this data that makes it impractical for this site.
6) WHY NOT COMBINE WITH SEAT SHARE FOR UNDER/OVER PERFORMANCE?
Seat share is not a good metric because hubs distort it badly as often there are many seats flying in feed markets with little local traffic. QSI share has a similar issue. Additionally, it would be very difficult to visualize that data in a simple graph.
7) WHAT IS POINT-OF-SALE?
Resident Point-of-Sale means passengers living around the specified airport are included, not visitors to the region nor people connecting through the airport. Visitor Point-of-Sale would include all passengers not living around the specified airport but flying to/from the airport, while still excluding those connecting through the airport. Point-of-sale in this context is determined by where a passenger began a roundtrip. If they flew SEA-ORD-LGA (overnight in LGA)-CLT-SEA then SEA is the point-of-origin. Point-of-Sale market share is important because an airline may have a lot of flights or seats at an airport, but not be winning the local resident passenger, or may be winning only visitors.
8) HOW IS REVENUE CALCULATED? WHAT HAPPENS WITH BAG FEES AND SUCH?
Ancillary revenue is included in order to make sure ULCCs are properly counted. All transport-related revenue, excluding cargo/mail/charter, is included at a network level to get an average % of ancillary revenue. That % is added for the appropriate quarter to the ticket price.
9) WHAT CAUSES ODD BUMPS IN THE DATA?
The carriers required to report change based on their size. When they cross the size benchmark necessary to report data they will appear often causing a large jump in markets where the new carrier is significantly sized.