What is the biggest expense for an airline?

While you may think that airline tickets are pricey, much of the fare goes to cover costs. The biggest costs for airlines include labor and and fuel. Labor accounts for about 31% of operational expenses, followed by fuel: 22% of operational expenses.



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The biggest costs for airlines include labor, equipment, and fuel.

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An airline's most important assets are its airplanes and its people. An airline can have the best planes in the world, but without the employees, an airline can't do anything.

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Direct costs are out-of-pocket expenses: fuel, oil, and landing fees. The amount depends directly on how much the aircraft is flown.

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Next time you board a flight, just imagine you're putting a $20 bill in the airline's tip jar. Profit per passenger at the seven largest U.S. airlines averaged $19.65 over the past four years—record-setting profitable years for airlines. In 2017, it stood at $17.75, based on airline earnings reports.

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The cost per gallon of fuel in September 2022 ($3.49) was up 2 cents (0.6%) from August 2022 ($3.47) and up $1.53 (78.1%) from September 2019. Total September 2022 fuel expenditure ($4.89B) was down 6.3% from August 2022 ($5.22B) and up 69.2% from pre-pandemic September 2019.

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In 2022, the U.S. airline industry generated total operating revenue of nearly 279.6 billion U.S. dollars.

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Low-cost airlines specialise in keeping the costs down, minimizing their operating costs by having single aircraft fleets, and without some of the more traditional amenities (like in-flight meals) included in the fare, meaning they can offer lower fares due to their lower cost of operating – essentially these cost- ...

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