Source:

Southwest

Genuine Impact newsletter - we do 6-10 charts like this each week

Tools:

Sankey Figma

Why would they even have a cargo branche?

I think cargo is when there is extra space on a plane they will load cargo

Yeah and possibly more profitable than anything else

Another bot plot showing something that could have been stopped in the first column.

This isn't how Southwest makes money - this is how they spend the money they make.

It's both...thus the post title

You have to remember that the basics of making money with airplanes is to fill every space with cargo, as long as the plane can still get off the ground. Its common for airlines to do some cargo for mail.

just like trains when they were the preferred method of transit

Which branch is money spent buying planes?

Net Profit is only 4.4% of the Revenue
It's fascinating how some of these companies are still running.

Not really. It doesn't break down what they actually sold. How much of that is tickets, how much is fees, additional services etc.? And where do the "other" $500M come from?

This made me curious; small depreciation and no lease fees for airplanes, so I looked a bit.

They have $2126M in airplanes, so obviously they depreciate very little. But their net earnings are not even 1.5% of the value of the airplanes.

Better to sell the planes, fire everyone, and stick that money in a bond.