JetBlue Cuts Transatlantic Flying In Winter, Shortens Summer Season

there are indeed differences in the total net income by region compared to what is reported on the bottom line for the SEC.
The numbers for UAL are actually pretty accurate.
the reasons are not because of the refinery or SkyMiles/Amex because that is allocated to each region but because of non-operating costs which include DL's equity investments.
DL's profitability in the MRQ was impacted by losses on its equity investments; otherwise, it would have been significantly more profitable than UA. Also, UA has not raised FA pay raises while DL has multiple times.
Not only on an apples to apples cost basis, the big 3 are not presently comparable but there are differences in global region vs. system level SEC-reported net income because of factors which are not allocated to each global region.

just as I have told everyone else that wants to question the numbers, feel free to tell us how to redistribute the profits between global regions if you don't like the way it is reported to the DOT - BY THE AIRLINES.

Delta made $2 billion more in system net profit than United in 2023 and $3 billion more than American.

The division of profits (or losses) has to add up to the same system number.

UA is closing the profit gap with DL but also hasn't raised FA wages.

The refinery is not delivering benefits near as large as it did post covid but it does reduce fuel costs for the airline; the benefit is allocated to the airline.

DL's loyalty and credit card is the biggest revenue differentiator; UA realizes that the reason they can't get a better credit card deal is because credit cards look at domestic revenue primarily and UA's focus on international revenue does not allow it to get the high margin credit card revenue.

And international markets have not been near as profitable as domestic markets for most of the post-deregulation period of the industry.

AA simply has not addressed the reasons for its underperformance in continental Europe and Asia including its inability to compete in major markets in the NE and west where DL and UA are stronger.

and FA costs will increase at AA and UA and there will be retro or DL will continue to gain revenue because of its ability to deliver better service.

and the trends between how AA, DL and perform in each region and overall is still very much correlated with the strategies that each make. It is only people that want to argue otherwise that discard things like the fact that AA is not taking delivery of anywhere near the number of new widebodies as DL and UA that they clearly do not see profitability in much of their international network.
And UA, for all that it wants to be international, has made some huge strategic failures including dumping capacity across the Pacific which absolutely showed up in DOT profitability and its execs statements that the Atlantic underperformed in 2023 which led to them pull back capacity this summer.
again, feel free to tell us what the profitability by region should say with all of the adjustments but you can't just reject it because you don't like what it says.

Greg,
it is pretty obvious that it is you that spent enormous amounts of time trying to manipulate the numbers to close the gap in profitability between DAL and UAL which is what you really want.
The DOT profitability by global region data includes differences and the DOT and the airlines themselves know those differences very well.

And yet, UAL made $2 billion less than DAL on their income statement for 2023; there is no way you can make UAL's international network as profitable as DAL's on an ASM basis (since UAL is a larger international carrier) unless you make UAL's domestic system lose money or be breakeven at best.

The real issue you should be focused on is why UAL's profitability trails DAL's and if you do you will find that
1. UAL has a less fuel efficient fleet - both for international and domestic aircraft.
2. UAL like AAL uses many more regional jets which are less fuel efficient but also much less labor efficient.
3. UAL is much more driven by a need to protect market share and to chase aviation geek metrics than to maximize profitability.
4. UAL gets much less revenue from non-transportation sources which is what gets DAL much higher margins.

and we could go on....

but the future is what matters.
UAL has stated it intends to grow its domestic network aggressively and yet it will have to displace AAL, DAL and LUV in multiple markets in order to gain share - a very difficult task.

Meanwhile, DAL sees the profits UAL is making in international markets - half of their profits came from international even though international was less than half of their revenue - and DAL is positioning itself to grow in international markets and do it more efficiently and with better strategies than UAL. It is far more likely that DAL will be much closer to UAL in total international size in 5 years than that UAL will gain share from any of the other big 4.
If news of UAL's potential purchase of used 777-300ERs turns out to be true, UAL will be locking in higher costs than DAL on its international system for a decade or more.

And the real irony of this discussion is that it is UAL that has been crowing the financial downfall of the low cost and ultra low cost carrier segment and yet JBLU and SAVE, the two weakest carriers in the industry, are larger in DAL and AAL markets than in AAL markets. so DL and AA are far more likely to benefit from the downfall of the carriers that UA is cheering to fall.

let's not forget that UA was in the longest and most expensive chapter 11 reorganization among any US airline and still has not achieved Scott Kirby's goal of matching DAL's profitability.
UAL has made a whole lot of progress but UA has not freed itself from its own history
and more importantly JBLU and the rest of the industry are far more likely to figure out how to restructure themselves than for them to disappear from the scene.

Greg,
once again,
what you can't stand to admit is that Delta is much more profitable on the bottom line net income on their SEC reported income statement.
Feel free to tell us how the $2 billion difference in net income for 2023 between DL and UA should be divided but the total is $2 billion and it will get allocated to each global region in one way or another.
You can tell us how you think the numbers should be but there is at least a $2 billion difference.
DOT regulations allow some costs to be allocated to regions and some not to be. The difference in DL's SEC bottom line and the sum of its global region profitability is explained by those rules. If you don't like them, argue with the DOT, not me.

what you and a whole bunch of ego-driven UA people can't stand to admit is that 7 years after Scott Kirby said UA would match DL's profitability, then have yet to do it.
As much as I want to believe that UA can and will close that gap, when you and others refuse to admit that UA repeatedly makes financially poor decisions like dumping capacity into the Pacific in the winter and chasing market share and the number of dots on a route map, then my hopes that UA can close that gap are repeatedly dashed - UA mgmt simply wants to focus on things that are contrary to maximizing profitability.

And when they drone on about the A321XLR while holding onto older widebody fuel INEFFICIENT aircraft and talking about buying used 777-300ERs because they can't get 787s from Boeing even though the 777 cannot do what the A350 - which UA has had on order but been deferring for a decade - then it is clear that UA can't fix its profit gap with DL because it can't make the right basic decisions

in other words, you can't stand the facts that I factually present and you think that B6 current management is making a mistake.

Take it up with them.

DOT data is far more useful for established carriers of similar size to show movement and relative size than as an absolute metric even though the bottom line results for each geographic region remain the same.

and DOT regional profitability data shows that B6 has lost massive amounts of money in the domestic marketplace for 5 years - a far higher percentage than any of the big 4 have lost.

It is entirely possible they could make money flying the Atlantic but they have to turn their domestic system around because international won't work if domestic continues to fail.

Either way, you are arguing with B6' current management; they made the cuts to B6' TATL network and not me.

yes, there are multiple resources that track recommendations - which of course have nothing to do with B6' cut in profitability or profitability by global region.

There are a whole of people that can't stand to hear that DL outperforms its competitors in every global region - including domestic - and so they attack the messenger.

Feel free to post a side by side comparison of stock recommendations by sell side analysts, other Seeking Alpha contributors, and me and you will see that I have a better track record than either group.
Airline stock recommendations are inherently bullish compared to the performance of the sector and yet the principle is still true that there is no date specificity for any stock rating. I and others have issued either positive or negative recommendations for a stock and there have been times those have been correct; until those recommendations are replaced, those are still valid but that didn't make them wrong at some point.

and again, none of this changes that B6 mgmt is making dramatic cuts across its network; as much as some want to argue that their TATL network is not the problem, B6' current mgmt at the least knows they cannot sustain and grow an international operation as long as their domestic operation loses as much money as it is losing.

and AA and UA still operate much less profitability across their global regions (other than AA to Latin America) than DL AS WELL AS in the domestic marketplace.
Those that want to argue against DOT data cannot reconcile the fact that DL outperforms both AA and UA across their entire systems so it isn't a surprise that they outperform in global regions.
and there are a whole lot of people that can't stand to hear that reality.

and as long as they keep trying to attack me, I will simply keep making the facts that they can't deny

Brian,
providing a recommendation for a stock does not mean how it compares to other investments. Not for me or for any sell side analyst.
An investment adviser or an individual retail investor weighs all of the data and decides how to build their portfolio. I do not provide recommendations about how to build a portfolio or compare any individual stocks to the broader market as a whole.

Indices often outperform any single stock over a period of time and that is not limited to airlines. Airlines have outperformed indices at times.

scooter,
there are abundant tools available to provide total return evaluations.
among AAL, ALK, DAL, JBLU, LUV, and UAL, DAL has been the best performing stock on a total return basis over the past year - and it is down just under 1%. DAL is the only one of those 6 that has positive growth over the past 6 months while DAL, LUV and UAL are positive with UAL slightly higher than DAL.

And since JBLU is the subject of this article, it is worth noting that AAL stock has performed worse over multiple time periods than JBLU.