Foundations of Airline Finance: Methodology and Practice

Foundations of Airline Finance: Methodology and Practice is a textbook that comprehensively covers, at a basic level, all aspects of the subject, bringing together many of the numerous and informative articles and institutional developments that have characterized the field of airline finance in the previous two decades. In the early chapters, the reader is introduced to the elementary theoretical foundations that underpin the role of finance in the airline industry. Critical topics, such as the time value of money, the notion of risk and return, and the complex nature of costs (fixed, semi-fixed, variable, and marginal) are discussed and illustrated with concrete examples. This is followed by an in-depth presentation of the role of accounting in airlines. Ratio analysis is used to further analyze airline financial statements. Airline industry specific metrics, such as cost per available seat mile (CASM) and revenue per revenue passenger mile (RRPM), are covered. The role of capital and asset management is then explained in the following chapters. The final chapters of the text present some important practical applications of the theoretical ideas presented earlier; these applications include hedging, the buy versus lease decision for aircraft and the question of the valuation of assets (mainly aircraft). Moreover, specific methods for actually calculating internal valuation are presented and evaluated. Foundations of Airline Finance: Methodology and Practice will be of greatest value to students who are contemplating entering financial management in the air transportation industry; however, the text will also serve as an accessible and comprehensive reference for industry professionals.