RT and all, Hate to be Clintonian, but it depends on what you mean by "revenue." Now, I'm not an accountant -- you gotta see two of my brothers-in-law for that. For simplicity, let's assume American's income is just ticket sales. -- is this just the ticket sales? -- is this "operating revenue"? That is, the ticket sales minus the operating costs of running the airline? Salaries, gas, landing fees, etc. If it's the first -- and I suspect it is -- you can see that the $4.6 billion gives a very incomplete picture of American. Then, whether revenue is the first or the second, there are other deductions you make that are not part of operating expenditures, so-called capital expenditures -- buying airplanes or any "durable good" (at our university, this includes computers). In the 1960's, lots of investors bought & sold stocks based on "income statements" -- the equivalent of AA's ticket sales. Income going up meant company doing well, didn't it? Well lots of people bought Penn-Central stock for just that reason. Penn-Central went bankrupt because the operating expenditures were going up even faster. Sort of like judging whether government budget is okay by whether tax receipts (income) are going up and neglecting spending (expenditures). On the other hand, the $1 million by itself also gives an incomplete picture. Also, one time (one quarter) figures also give an incomplete picture. Even so, I'm not going to call up my parents and tell them to buy American's stock. john On Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 12:51 PM, RT Simpson wrote: > Can someone 'splain it to me? AMR's revenue in Q3 was $4.6 billion, > yet net > income was all of $1 million. Take away the one time accounting > adjustments, > and the carrier would have lost $23m in Q3! UnbelieveAAble! > > RT Simpson > Phoenix > John Kurtzke, C.S.C. Dept of Math Univ of Portland Portland OR 97203 503-943-7377