This year's rankings of publicly traded airlines identify those companies that are best positioned to weather the current run-up in fuel prices. Scores represent the composite of five performance categories, placing significant emphasis on financial fitness. The five categories (and their contributions to total score) include:

Liquidity (30%), scored from a series of metrics measuring cash and equivalents available to fund current operating requirements; implicit borrowing capacity computed from a percentage estimate of unencumbered asset collateral to debt; and unrestricted cash reserves per available seat mile.

Fuel Cost Management (20%), determined from a string of metrics measuring cash flow and year-over-year changes to liquidity and solvency against the average annual cost of Jet A fuel.

Financial Health (20%), representing a measure of an airline's overall financial strength based on assessments of solvency, current ratio, fixed-charge coverage, mix of debt and equity capital, operating income margin and debt service cover.

Earnings Performance (20%), based on a string of metrics measuring earnings momentum and earnings quality from cash flow margin, and year-over-year changes to unit revenue and operating cost.

Asset Utilization (10%), determined from the ratio cash flow return on investment, providing computation of an economic (versus book or GAAP-based) internal rate of return on inflation-adjusted operating assets of an airline.