CASM (or CASK) is a commonly used measure of unit cost in the airline industry. CASM is expressed in cents to operate each seat mile offered, and is determined by dividing operating costs by ASMs. This number is frequently used to allow a cost comparison between different airlines or for the same airline across different time periods (say for one year vs the preceding year). A lower CASM means that it is easier for the airline to make a profit, as they have to charge less to break even. A low CASM, however, is by no means a guarantee of profitability. Further, CASM should only be compared across airlines with care. For instance, all other things being equal, an airline with a longer average stage length will have a lower CASM, because fixed costs will account for a lower portion of its total costs. For this reason, to be meaningful, CASM comparisons across different airlines generally require, at a minimum, that CASMs for all airlines be adjusted to a common stage length, or that the CASMs be graphed versus the stage length of all the airlines being compared.
