(New York) American Airlines on Thursday unveiled better-than-expected third quarter results despite the gradual rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19 during the period, which slowed the resumption of air traffic.
“The third quarter has started very strongly,” said management in a message to employees. “Revenue was soaring as companies returned to work and their employees returned to the air. ”
“But then, the spread of the Delta variant led to a decrease in the number of people on planes,” he added in this document consulted by AFP. “We were profitable in July, but it was followed by losses in August and September. ”
The group did generate a net profit of $ 169 million over the period. But excluding one-off items, American Airlines took a loss of $ 641 million, its lowest operating loss since the start of the pandemic.
Reported on a per share basis, the loss amounted to 99 cents where analysts had expected a loss of $ 1.04.
The company’s total revenue was $ 9 million, nearly triple the same period in 2020, but 25% lower than in 2019, before the pandemic brought down air traffic. .
The portion of seats occupied on airplanes was 78.7%.
For the fourth quarter, the group expects a continuation of the recovery with turnover down 20% compared to 2019 and capacity, the number of seats that the company plans to offer, down 11 % to 13%.
American is thus showing itself a little more ambitious than United Airlines and Delta, which respectively foresee capacity down by 23% and 20%.
The action was up 1.2% in electronic trading before the opening of the session on Wall Street.