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Item 6. Selected Financial Data
The following financial information, for the five years ended December 31, 2018, has been derived from the Company’s
Consolidated Financial Statements. This information should be viewed in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial
Statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere herein. The Company provides the operating data below
because these statistics are commonly used in the airline industry and, therefore, allow readers to compare the
Company’s performance against its results for prior periods, as well as against the performance of the Company’s
peers.
As of January 1, 2018, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2014-09: Revenue from Contracts
with Customers (the "New Revenue Standard"), ASU 2017-07: Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension
Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost (the "New Retirement Standard"), and ASU 2017-12: Targeted
Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities (the "New Hedging Standard"). As a result, certain prior period
results have been recast due to the transition methods applied. See Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements
for further information.
Year ended December 31,
2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
As Recast As Recast As Recast (k) As Recast (k)
Financial Data (in millions, except per share amounts):
Operating revenues $ 21,965 $ 21,146 $ 20,289 $ 19,820 $ 18,605
Operating expenses 18,759 17,739 16,767 15,821 16,437
Operating income 3,206 3,407 3,522 3,999 2,168
Other expenses (income) net 42 142 72 520 352
Income before taxes 3,164 3,265 3,450 3,479 1,816
Provision for income taxes 699 (92) 1,267 1,298 680
Net income $ 2,465 $ 3,357 $ 2,183 $ 2,181 $ 1,136
Net income per share, basic $ 4.30 $ 5.58 $ 3.48 $ 3.30 $ 1.65
Net income per share, diluted $ 4.29 $ 5.57 $ 3.45 $ 3.27 $ 1.64
Cash dividends per common share $ 0.6050 $ 0.4750 $ 0.3750 $ 0.2850 $ 0.2200
Total assets at period-end $ 26,243 $ 25,110 $ 23,286 $ 21,312 $ 19,723
Long-term obligations at period-end $ 2,771 $ 3,320 $ 2,821 $ 2,541 $ 2,434
Stockholders’ equity at period-end $ 9,853 $ 9,641 $ 7,784 $ 7,358 $ 6,775
Operating Data:
Revenue passengers carried 134,890,243 130,256,190 124,719,765 118,171,211 110,496,912
Enplaned passengers 163,605,833 157,677,218 151,740,357 144,574,882 135,767,188
Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) (000s) (a) 133,322,322 129,041,420 124,797,986 117,499,879 108,035,133
Available seat miles (ASMs) (000s) (b) 159,795,153 153,811,072 148,522,051 140,501,409 131,003,957
Load factor (c) 83.4% 83.9% 84.0% 83.6% 82.5%
Average length of passenger haul (miles) 988 991 1,001 994 978
Average aircraft stage length (miles) 757 754 760 750 721
Trips flown 1,375,030 1,347,893 1,311,149 1,267,358 1,255,502
Seats flown (d) 207,223,050 200,878,967 193,167,695 184,955,094 179,733,055
Seats per trip (e) 150.70 149.03 147.33 145.94 143.16
Average passenger fare $ 151.64 $ 151.73 $ 152.89 $ 154.85 $ 159.80
Passenger revenue yield per RPM (cents) (f) 15.34 15.32 15.28 15.57 16.34
Operating revenue per ASM (cents) (g)(j) 13.75 13.75 13.66 13.98 14.20
Passenger revenue per ASM (cents) (h) 12.80 12.85 12.84 13.02 13.48
Operating expenses per ASM (cents) (i) 11.74 11.53 11.29 11.26 12.55
Operating expenses per ASM, excluding fuel (cents) 8.85 8.88 8.73 8.60 8.46
Operating expenses per ASM, excluding fuel and profitsharing
(cents)
8.51 8.53 8.34 8.16 8.19
Fuel costs per gallon, including fuel tax $ 2.20 $ 1.99 $ 1.90 $ 1.96 $ 2.97
Fuel costs per gallon, including fuel tax, economic $ 2.20 $ 2.06 $ 2.00 $ 2.13 $ 2.95
Fuel consumed, in gallons (millions) 2,094 2,045 1,996 1,901 1,801
Active fulltime equivalent Employees 58,803 56,110 53,536 49,583 46,278
Aircraft at end of period 750 706 723 704 665