FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
CASH COWS REPORT
4) THE NUMBER OF DEPARTURES ARE WRONG?
6) THE ROUNDTRIPS DO NOT MATCH OTHER SCHEDULE REPORTS?
7) THE ROUTE RESULTS DO NOT MATCH THE SCORES ON THE ROUTE RASM REPORT?
2) WHAT IS INCLUDED?
The goal of the report is to highlight routes the airline's best domestic routes, and to provide seasonal context with a year of performance results. This data show the most highest rated (GREAT, marked with the color GREEN) routes in the most recent Quarter of the ROUTE RASM REPORT for each airline. The ratings of the previous 3 quarters are also shown using the same color coding as the ROUTE RASM REPORT. The airlines share in the non-stop (local) market is also shown to gauge local market control perhaps leading to better results, as well as future roundtrips which are also color coded.
3) HOW DO I READ THE DATA?
The best routes in the most recent quarter are shown.
AL : The IATA airline code for the airline
ROUTE : Non-stop route origin and destination in alphabetical order with the first airport in the alphabet shown first, directions are combined, unlike the Route RASM report
QTR SCORE : The four squares show the performance score for the most recent quarter (furthest right) and previous 3 quarters to the left of it. White indicates no data available or flight didn't operate at least 10 roundtrips during the quarter. Color coding is below.
Route Performance Score: Performance is shown among five groups compared only against that airline's other routes.
GREAT (Green) is the best 20% of the airline's RASM results (80% to 100%).
GOOD (Blue) is the next 20% group of routes (60-80%).
FINE (Gray) is the middle group which indicates average performance among that airline's routes (40-60%).
WEAK (Orange) indicates the results for the route are below average for that airline (20-40%). It is important to note that a WEAK route may still be profitable depending upon how profitable the airline as a whole was during that quarter.
POOR (Red) is the lowest group and indicates the route is probably at some risk of being cut (0-20%).
LCL MKT SHR : The Local Market Share (Revenue Share to be exact) for the airline in the local market taken from the Route Market Share Report. If the route is Delta from Atlanta (ATL) to Birmingham (BHM) it would show perhaps a nearly 100% share in the market, which means that for the market between Atlanta and Birmingham Delta carries nearly all the local revenue. This does not include passengers connecting beyond Atlanta or connecting in Birmingham for the example. This calculation only includes passengers beginning their trip in Birmingham and ending their trip in Atlanta as either a one-way or roundtrip purchase. A passenger flying Birmingham-Charlotte-Atlanta would be counted in the market share calculation of Atlanta-Birmingham because the beginning of the trip is still Birmingham and the end is still Atlanta. A passenger flying Birmingham-Atlanta-Cleveland would not be included because the end of their trip is Cleveland.
In another example, if the market were Delta New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) the share would include Delta's market share from JFK to LAX including both passengers on the non-stop service or connecting on Delta at intermediate stops.
The purpose of this statistic is to see if market dominance translated into pricing power when then translated into profitability...or not. The more heavily connecting the route is, the less relevant this statistic is.
MONTHLY RTs : This is the number of currently published roundtrips for the next 4 months for the airline. They are color coded.
Monthly RTs Color Coding: Published roundtrips are compared to the number of flights in the most recent quarter of profitability data.
MORE (Blue) is more flights (rounded) than in the most recent quarter of profitability data.
SAME (Gray) is the same number of flights (rounded) versus the most recent quarter of profitability data.
LESS (Orange) indicates fewer flights (rounded) than the most recent quarter of profitability data.
SUSPENDED (Red) indicates the route is seasonally or permanently suspended for that month.
4) THE NUMBER OF DEPARTURES ARE WRONG?
Future schedules are always changing and the numbers represent what was the case as of the last data capture.
6) THE ROUNDTRIPS DO NOT MATCH OTHER SCHEDULE REPORTS?
All of the data here is combined for two directions which may create variances to other reports, as well as different capture dates.
7) THE ROUTE RESULTS DO NOT MATCH THE SCORES ON THE ROUTE RASM REPORT?
There should be only slight differences to the ROUTE RASM REPORT, but as methodology changes are made there may be syncing issues where one report has those updates implemented while the other has not yet.
8) WHAT AIRLINES ARE INCLUDED?
Only airlines included in the ROUTE RASM REPORT are included.
9) WHAT DO THE COLORED ROUNDTRIPS INDICATE?
The color indicates a change (rounded) in the number of flights versus the period of the most recent quarter of profitability data. BLUE means service has increased. GRAY means service is unchanged. ORANGE means service has decreased. RED means service is seasonal or suspended.