Airline Earnings: Southwest, American Airlines, JetBlue Were All Flying Higher

Several airlines reported earnings on Thursday morning. Investors and traders have been paying particularly close attention to the group in recent weeks as oil prices tumbled while the Ebola scare placed a negative sentiment on the entire sector.

Southwest Airlines: Improving Metrics

Southwest Airlines Co LUV posted a better-than-expected third quarter result including a top and bottom line beat. Net income for the quarter improved to a record third-quarter performance of $329 million from $259 million a year ago, as the airliner saw its revenue passenger miles rise 5.6 percent to 28.522 billion despite a 4.1 percent decrease in total trips flown.

Average revenue per passenger fair improved by 0.8 percent to $160.74 from a year ago.

Fuel costs for the quarter fell to $2.94 per gallon from $3.06 per gallon a year ago. The company expects its fourth quarter fuel costs to fall in a range of $2.70 to $2.75 per gallon.

American Airlines: Highest Net Income Ever Reported

American Airlines Group Inc AAL posted a stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings as revenues were in-line with expectations. However, the company impressively improved its net income for the quarter to a historical all-time high of $942 million from $289 million in the same quarter a year ago, despite a 0.3 percent growth in revenue total mainline and regional passenger miles to 57.65 billion.

Consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (ASM) improved 1 percent from a year ago to a record of $14.12 while the airliner benefited from paying $2.98 on average for every gallon of fuel, a 1.6 percent improvement from $3.03 it paid a year ago.

The company anticipates a record profit for both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2014 while being in great position to succeed in 2015 and beyond.

JetBlue: Revenue and Earnings Miss, Net Income Improves

JetBlue Airways Corporation JBLU may have disappointed some investors when it missed revenue and earnings expectations, but the company did improve its net income to $79 million from $71 million a year ago as revenue passenger miles rose 5.9 percent to 10.1 billion.

Average fare per passenger rose slightly to $164.80 in the quarter from $164.02 a year ago, while passenger revenue per ASM rose 2.4 percent from a year ago to $12.03.

JetBlue paid an average of $3.05 per gallon of fuel in the quarter, representing a price improvement of 2.7 percent from a year ago. The company expects further improvements in the fourth quarter and expects to pay $2.80 per gallon of fuel.

The company expects a decrease of 3 percent to 1 percent in available seat miles for the fourth quarter, but sees a full year improvement in available seat miles of 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent for fiscal 2014.

Shares of all three airliners were trading higher on Thursday, though JetBlue and Southwest finished the day in the red.

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Posted In: EarningsNewsMoversAirlinersAmerican AirlinesEbolaJetBlueSouthwest Airlines
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