Consider the following data for the airline industry for July 2018. Discuss the potential challenges of using multiples to value an airline.

Problems 349 Source: CapitalIQ Company Name Market Capitalization Enterprise Value (EV) EV/Sales EV/EBITDA EV/EBIT P/E Forward P/E Alaska Air (ALK) 7,286 8,207 1.02x 5.1x 6.7x 7.7x 12.5x American Airlines (AAL) 17,879 37,327 0.87x 5.7x 8.2x 10.5x 8.2x Delta Air Lines (DAL) 35,580 44,164 1.02x 5.7x 8.0x 10.8x 8.8x Hawaiian (HA) 2,023 2,057 0.73x 3.4x 4.1x 5.8x 7.2x JetBlue Airways (JBLU) 5,450 5,814 0.80x 4.1x 5.9x 4.9x 10.8x SkyWest (SKYW) 2,909 5,040 1.56x 7.2x 12.6x 6.6x 11.8x Southwest Airlines (LUV) 30,318 30,691 1.44x 6.9x 8.9x 8.6x 12.3x United Continental (UAL) 21,961 31,393 0.80x 5.7x 9.2x 11.4x 9.3x