BTS publishes airline financial data from third quarter

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), published financial data Tuesday on airlines' third quarter profits for 2015.

The scheduled passenger airlines in the United States made an after-tax net profit that amounted to $9.3 billion for the third quarter of this year. This shows an increase compared to the $5.5 billion sum from the second quarter of this year.

It is also a significant increase compared to the $3.1 billion profit that was reported for the same period last year. In fact, this year’s third quarter sum is the highest that has been reported since 2006.

This is the tenth quarter in a row that all of the 25 scheduled service passenger airlines in the United States gave a group after-tax net profit instead of an individual figure.

Additionally, the scheduled service passenger airlines made $8.8 billion with their pre-tax operating profit in the same third quarter of this year. This is an increase compared to the $8.3 billion from the second quarter of this year. It is also a rise from the $5.5 billion from 2014’s third quarter.

This is the 18th quarter in a row that the airlines have given a group pre-tax operating profit figure for the BTS publication.