After looking at this…I feel pretty bad for all of the reporters and analysts who have a four-hour marathon on Thursday!

Tuesday, October 19
Hawaiian (4:30 PM)

Wednesday, October 20
Delta (10:00 AM)
US Airways (1:00 PM)
American (2:00 PM)

Thursday, October 21
JetBlue (9:30 AM)
United/Continental (10:30 AM)
Alaska (11:30 AM)
Southwest (12:30 PM)

Friday, October 22
AirTran (The airline says there will not be a call due to the Southwest merger.)

Wednesday, October 27
Allegiant (4:30 PM)

(Edited at 10:26 am Eastern with AirTran’s information.)

But before we get too excited, let’s look at a couple of other things. First, here’s year-over-year comparisons for this month’s results compared to 2009 (shown in the graph), but 2008 and 2007 as well.

Another handy graph is the 12-month moving average of yields:

So, basically, yields have been slowly increasing or staying flat for the past three to four months. But considering the results that we’ve seen in the past year, I’m cool with that.

You can see the raw data here.

Of course, a big factor here is more favorable comparisons. For example, Atlantic yields decreased the most in January last year, so that helped fuel last month’s 4.4% increase (the biggest increase in January). Meanwhile, Latin yields were actually up last year, so it’s not surprising the results were the worst this month, with a 5.1% decrease. Domestic yields were up 1.1%, while Pacific yields experienced a slight 1.6% slide.

And, here’s my usual graph of the 12-month moving average of yields. There’s really nothing to exciting to report here. Yes, we’re starting to see some positive numbers, but we’ve basically been bouncing around the bottom for a few months now.

But let’s put this data in perspective a bit. Here’s the 12-month moving average, but back to the beginning of 2007:

I think that shows pretty well that there’s still a long road ahead for yields to recover.

A 12-month moving average of the data still shows declines, but like November, the decline was less than that of the prior month.

As you can see from the graph – it really looks like things are bottoming out. Hopefully the trend will continue, and we can see some kind of growth in the coming months.

Anyway, my last final is this afternoon, so I will be back to a regular posting schedule tomorrow.

First of all, the decrease in yields continues to lessen. Granted, the declines are still in the area of 15%, but it’s progress.  There was improvement in all regions.

(Click to enlarge)

I also decided to graph a the 12-month moving average of yields in order to help remove seasonality from the data. As you can see, there’s been a steady decline throughout the year:

(Click to enlarge)

But there’s been improvement in this number as well – for every region, the decrease from September to October was less than the decrease between August and September.

November’s numbers will probably look even  better, thanks to easier year-over-year comparisons (we’re getting to the point where numbers started to look bad a year ago). Plus, Thanksgiving was a bit late last year, putting more holiday travel into the beginning of December. The holiday is two days earlier on the calendar this year, so that might help a bit.

But, the basic message has been the same for the past few months – things are still bad, but there are signs of improvement.

So, what does IATA think of the current environment? Well, I think these comments from IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani from a couple of days before this report was released make it pretty clear:

“It is far too early to call this a recovery. The worst may be over in terms of the fall in demand, but yields continue to be a disaster and costs are rising. The airline industry remains firmly in the red with a fragile business environment.”

Anyway, here’s the data I found interesting in the report. First off is demand, measured by RPKs and FTKs:

So, growth in RTKs has finally turned positive, and that’s a good thing. But unfortunately that doesn’t tell the whole story. Take a look at fares:

We’re seeing an improvement in the decline in fares, which is good. But it appears that that improvement in demand is coming from a decrease in fares. IATA reports that “the revenue environment remains extremely challenging.”

Like many other indicators, this data shows that while progress is being made, there’s still a ways to go.

(Click to enlarge.)

So, oil has certainly recovered from its lows and has be testing the $80 level, which isn’t exactly good news for the airlines.

But what I always find more interesting is the price of oil in euros. Oil is priced in dollars, so it’s assumed that as the dollar depreciates against other currencies oil would go up in dollars. And that seems to be the case. Note how the two prices came very close at the end of last year when investors were seeking safety in the U.S., boosting the dollar, but now the dollar is losing value again. As a result, the gap between the two prices is now increasing.

According to IATA, the situation is beginning to improve. The number of passengers in premium cabins was down 23.5% in May, but was down 12% in August. Revenue, however, is another key metric that’s improving – revenues in August were down about 30%, while decreases in past months were over 40%. Granted, comparisons will begin to look rosier soon, as comparisons will begin to be made off of those horrible months when revenues were down over 40%. Hopefully, we will see some kind of positive number when that happens.

Here’s a graph of the latest data from IATA – the purple bars represent volumes, and the blue line represents revenues.

Of course, comparisons are hard, and that will continue. In, September 2008 airlines posted large gains in yield as airlines rose fares, and as the months progress, comparisons will be based on this year’s big declines.

Nevertheless, in terms of year-over-year change, the decreases in yields have been in the same range for a few months now. Declines of over 20% aren’t good, but at least we are now seeing some kind of stability.

Tuesday, October 20
Allegiant
Hawaiian
United

Wednesday, October 21
AirTran
American
Continental

Thursday, October 22
Alaska
Delta
JetBlue
US Airways