Wille.....I would agree that one quarter's profitability doesn't make an airline...however, if you are interested in reality rather than conjecture, here are the actual WJ operating margins for the past 10 quarters, based on KPMG audited numbers.
3Q 2008 (EST) 18%
2Q 2008 9.1%
1Q 2008 13.7%
4Q 2007 15.2%
3Q 2007 22.1%
2Q 2007 14.7%
1Q 2007 13.6%
4Q 2006 15.1%
3Q 2006 19.5%
2Q 2006 13.5%
1Q 2006 10.8%
Indeed, I think you will find that since 1996, WJ has had a total of 4 quarters where they didn't earn a net profit and one of those was when they wrote off the 737-200 fleet. They even made money in 4Q 2001.
Only Southwest in North America can match or beat that run. No one else is even close.
WJ has grown asm's 58% in the period.
The other major airline in Canada's margins in 2006 were 2.6%, in 2007 it was 4.6% and 2008 so far -.1%.
