A4A Quarterly Passenger Airline Cost Index: U.S. Passenger Airlines

08-Jul-2016 A4A produces the U.S. PassengerThe total number of revenue passengers boarding aircraft in scheduled service....Continue Reading | Full Glossary Airline Cost Index (PACI) to monitor trends in the cost of inputs (e.g., labor, fuel, food, aircraft ownership, airport landing fees, insurance, utilities, interest) to the provision of air service over time. The various indices also facilitate comparisons among the components themselves and between airline costs and broader economic indicators. Long-term cost trends are important determinants of airfares. While the PACI includes cost per available seat mile (CASM), the traditional measure of airline unit operating costs, the index values themselves are the superior bellwethers of the price of inputs to production. CASM can mask the true cost of an input because it also reflects changes in productivity over time.