I was computing the hypothetical profitability of commercial airline flights and it seems to be pretty extreme. For example, looking at the Boston-DCA shuttle, pro-rating all costs to the just the flight itself using conservative figures I came up with the following:
aircraft: A320
distance: 346 nautical miles
fuel usage: 6500 pounds
fuel: 3800
maintenance: 2000
crew: 1200
hangar: 900
insurance: 400
Total costs: 8,300
passenger count: 150
ticket charge: 200
Total revenue: 30,000
Based on these figures, profitability of this route seems to be about 350%, i.e., more than tripling your costs on every flight. Even if we allow for tickets of $100 each, it is still almost a 100% profit.
Am I missing something, or are these figures in the right ballpark?
THIS IS NOT A DUPLICATE OF long-haul flight costs. That post is for LONG HAUL flights. This is a shuttle. That post concerns a completely different aircraft with costs amortized ANNUALLY. This is post is about PER-FLIGHT profitability, not ANNUAL profitability.
ALSO: This post asks about PROFITABILITY on this route, not just costs. It includes REVENUE. I am not asking general profitability; I am asking about this calculation for profitability on the route in question using the aircraft in question (A320).