PlaneBuzz

This week's very long issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. Yes, it's the second of our quarterly earnings issues.

This week we talk about the earnings that were announced last week by AirTran, Allegiant Travel, US Airways and Continental. We also have our PlaneBusiness Earnings Summaries posted for United Airlines, Alaska, JetBlue and Delta. We'll talk more about them in next week's issue.

This week the main topic of conversation was ancillary revenues as Allegiant blew the doors off the rest of the industry. The airline posted a 31.3% operating margin -- largely a result of ancillary revenues.

AirTran had a great quarter as well -- as the airline posted a nice fat profit. And yes, ancillary revenues were a nice part of that result as well.

US Airways -- Still on track to notch about $500 million in ancillary revenues in 2009.

Get the picture?

As for the earnings calls, this week I'm dubbing Barclay's Gary Chase the "35% Man." He and the folks at Continental Airlines went back and forth for a good part of that airline's call after the airline said that the 'average selling fares' for the airline's trans-Atlantic flights were running 35% below last year.

Yikes! No, ' average selling fare' is not the same as yield. Or at least that is what I learned after this extended discussion.

Is AirTran's Bob Fornaro glad that AirTran didn't go through with the deal for Midwest Airlines? You bet your life.

Know how long it takes Allegiant Air to pay off one of its aircraft? Less than a year.

Think about that.

All this and much more in this week's issue.

If you are a subscriber, you can access this week's issue here. If not, you can learn how you can become a subscriber by clicking here.