For a while it was because they had pre-purchased all of their fuel at 2000ish oil prices using long-term futures contracts. The bet turned out to be extremely lucrative for them. However, most of their contracts are either expired or set to expire soon so I expect their prices to revert to the mean.
They do a couple of other clever things, like only fly a single type of plane to take advantage of economies of scale, and only fly out of airports that have cheaper gate licensing fees. But the futures contracts really helped them through the industry's rough patch so that they could expand and aggressively grow while their competitors were declaring bankruptcy.
They do a couple of other clever things, like only fly a single type of plane to take advantage of economies of scale, and only fly out of airports that have cheaper gate licensing fees. But the futures contracts really helped them through the industry's rough patch so that they could expand and aggressively grow while their competitors were declaring bankruptcy.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1074147,00....