Factors contributing to airline insolvency

This study explores the problematic issues that caused Chapter 11 and bankruptcy filings during the period of March, 1989 to January, 1992. Unlike the approximately 85 airlines that went bankrupt during deregulation, 4 of the 6 airlines studied were original trunk carriers. The two remaining were, at that time, the only two surviving airlines born during deregulation. The data of these carriers was tracked over a thirteen year period. The tracking consisted of graphing financial / performance variables over time and then the construction of a matrix presenting the issues discovered in the literature search. In tracking their problematic issues over time, common factors present themselves as possible insights to their corporate failure. The following seven factors were found to have been common catalysts leading to insolvency: 1 - Effects of Deregulation 2 - Routes 3 - Jet Fleet 4 - Labor 5 - Hubs 6 - Mergers 7 - External Environmen