American Airlines Group Inc. reported Friday that earnings
nearly doubled, as lower operating costs helped offset a decline in
revenue.
Shares, down 21% this year through Thursday's close, increased
2.3% in premarket trading.
Passenger revenue per seat mile, a key industry metric, fell
6.9% from a year ago. Passenger yield was down 6.1%. However, cost
per available seat mile fell 12.8%. Capacity grew 1.9%, and traffic
rose 1.1%.
The product of a late 2013 merger of the old American and US
Airways Group Inc., the combined company is proceeding with its
integration and plans to tackle the technologically complex switch
to a single reservations system late this year. It recently
combined frequent-flier plans.
Overall, American earned $1.7 billion, or $2.41 a share,
compared with year-earlier profit of $864 million, or $1.17 a
share. Excluding certain items, earnings were $2.62 a share.
Revenue fell to $10.83 billion from $11.36 billion a year
earlier.
Analysts had expected earnings of $2.60 a share on revenue of
$10.86 billion.
The company also authorized an additional $2 billion
share-repurchase program, which will be completed by the end of
April 2016.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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