When a person can retire young, it is a good thing, but the early retirement of aircraft has consequences for the aviation industry when it occurs in larger numbers, as is the case now for commercial jets.

European Union emission allowance (EUA) prices surged to their highest level in more than three months in June as utilities ramped up their purchasing, triggering stops and forcing banks to cover short positions, traders say.

Rank: 3rd, revenues of $250 million-2 billion 2011 sales: $779 million

Rank: 1st, revenues greater than $6 billion Sales (12 months through March 2012): $11.8 billion

Assuming the hypothesis that most top-performing airlines outgrow their “sweet spot” is true, what steps can airlines take to maintain a competitive edge?

In past economic cycles, most major U.S. airlines tended to make profits in the “up” arc of the cycle and then lose a large amount of money in the down part. Within the last four years, the macro environment has been down sharply with only a very slow recovery indicated in the past three—so why are the airlines earning profits? Investors and the stock market still do not yet fully believe what they are seeing, according to current valuations of airline stock prices.

Rankings show that smaller airlines are more likely to be peak performers.

All carriers in the Top-Performing Airlines (TPA) study are now scored using a single algorithm. Prior-year results have been restated to reflect this. The scoring methodology represents a composite of five performance categories (and their contribution to total score):