John Heimlich Quotations

We've got more seats that are filled and we're getting higher fares for them. That's your best case scenario. If (jet) fuel was at $40 a barrel, we could be minting money right now.

When your second-highest cost plummets, that's huge. I call it the saving grace of the fourth quarter after the (federal assistance). But we're not quite as sanguine that we can count on that this year.

Fuel prices are the difference between record profitability (for some airlines) and a year of crappy losses.

The painful reality for passenger carriers is that the domestic market has been unwilling to accept fares that reflect high fuel prices.

I will be very surprised if there is not a proposal.

I still see the economy as absolute the No. 1 factor, (even with) as many other factors as there are nowadays,

Will it be enough for everyone? It's not clear, but $2.5 billion is better than $1 billion, especially if they move quickly with the second half.

Today's jet fuel prices are crushing and could prove to be a knockout blow for some.

We're not saying things are hunky-dory. All we're saying is that some of the indicators we look at and some of the recent trends are promising, and that's the first time I've used that word in a long time.

We're not expecting it to be much crazier than last summer.

We're paying enormous amounts for jet fuel right now. It's insane.

We don't yet have traffic back where we need it, but yes, the problem (of losses) is primarily fares rather than traffic,

Everything that relates to cash matters now. It would have been helpful to have the payroll taxes deferred, but this will go part of the way.

Every time the trust fund is going down, they say we're going to have to come to the airlines for more revenue. I say you don't have a revenue problem, you have a cost problem.

There's no question we never anticipated that kind of fuel reduction, ... We thought fuel prices would be going up, and instead the second biggest part of our operating pie had a big reduction.

The total fares are still going to be set at the supply and demand level.

This is one more thing we needed like a hole in the head.

There's a lot of business travel in short haul. That certainly hurt us.

There's been an acceleration of capacity-cutting with high fuel prices.

The number of people flying is less horrific than it was shortly after the 11th.

It's sort of a one-stop shopping experience, and the idea is to make the traveler feel like he or she is truly traveling on one airline.

Still, with fuel prices so high, the last thing you want is an interruption in your revenue stream.

The airlines will be forced to cut more capacity, accelerate fleet retirement and, unfortunately, they will have to lay off more workers,

The consumers are saying, 'The only time I'm going to travel, I'm going to make it count,' ... While there's some legacy fear factor and some legacy hassle factors, I think it's economics that still rule. As we head into heavier summer travel, we'll be working against our own recovery with some of the delays due to new security measures.

International capacity is up 5 percent, year over year.

In terms of the broad picture, it looks like there will be new choices and more seats going internationally versus last year. But things will be a little bit tighter domestically.

Clearly the more we get the sooner the better.

By then, we'd better have this problem rectified or we'll have a serious problem,

You can't undo five years of deep losses with one year of modest profit. We've got a long way to go.

Although airlines have recently passed through a few price increases, they pale in comparison to the magnitude of the sustained rise in jet fuel prices.

The load factors are unprecedented, and in a pre-9/11 environment, this would clearly be a boon to (higher fares). With the way things are, we are only getting a modest (fare) benefit.