Quick numbers

If you're wondering how the US carriers did on unit revenue performance basis here's quick rundown of the four majors and two large LCCs. I didn't list Southwest, since there was a lot of AirTran noise in its quaterly results.

 For your reference or a quick refresher -- Foundations of Airline Finance authored by Bijan Vasigh, Ken Fliming and Liam Mackay lists definitions of PRASM and RASM -- yes, a bit dry I realize for a Friday afternoon!

PRASM -- the average passenger revenue received per unit of output -- calculated by taking total passenger revenues and dividing by ASMs.

RASM -- Average total revenue per unit of output -- calculated by taking total revenue and dividing by ASMs.

Here are some PRASM numbers from US carriers from Q3

American   8.1% 
Delta         11% 
JetBlue      7.7% 
United-Continental 10.1% 
US Airways          10.4%

American, United-Continental and US Airways are all mainline numbers