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Even though we’ve been hearing our fair share of bad news regarding all flavors of downsizing going on in the airline business, the Global Fortune 500 List comes back, in 2008, to remind us that some airlines out there are still doing very well for themselves.

To put it simply, some people just need to fly.

For business or leisure, lots of sky travelers simply can’t do without their airplane link to another location on our Blue Planet. The airlines that are performing the best are those which properly cater to these people — and they’re not necessarily selling the cheapest seats either, it’s actually quite the contrary.

While the budget challenged airplane travelers need to cut back on their travel expenses, the richer crowd doesn’t really bother with the extra charges related to homeland security, fuel or various other fees being piggy-backed on the ticket prices.

Planes consuming less fuel, flying with less (empty) seats and serving busier routes will help the airlines who dare to reinvent themselves to thrive, even with the bargain-hunting passenger crowd.

So who’s on top, in the 2008 list of the Global Fortune 500?

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

The profits aren’t anywhere near those from banks or pharmaceuticals but this is airline transport, an industry where the competition is fierce in the air but also from alternative transportation like high-speed trains, direct bus routes, marine shuttles, people’s cars and others.

In this particular context, turning a profit -at all- is a good sign.

Because of anticipated market pressures on the airlines, in the US and abroad, the next few months and years could prove to be bumpy for the investors who need to keep in mind that with technological breakthroughs and advances, planes will likely get more affordable to operate and as such, profits could be looking up. Also, the current price of fuel, which is at an all-time high, is expected to go down enough for the airliners to breath, at least for a short while.

Let’s see how these and other smaller airlines perform in these challenging times, in the months and years to come. Expect major and not-so-major mergers and acquisitions to reshape, yet again, this industry.

Tags: airlines, airliners, airplanes, planes, sky travelers, tourists, business travel, air travel, airplane tickets, bargain prices, bargain hunters, lower prices, high fuel prices, fuel prices, airplane fuel, passengers, us, world, global, fortune, money, revenues, profits

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