Spirit Airlines Q2 Earnings Beat Views

reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the second quarter on Friday. The Miramar, Florida-based company posted quarterly net income of $76.7 million, or $1.05 per share, compared to $64.8 million, or $0.88 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Its adjusted earnings came in at $1.03 per share. Its revenue surged 10.8 percent year-over-year to $553.4 million. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $1.01 per share on revenue $555.06 million. The average estimate among 19 Estimize users was for earnings of $1.11 per share and revenue of $559.86 million. Its revenue per available seat mile slipped around 14.8 percent in the quarter, while capacity increased by 30.1 percent. Total revenue per passenger flight segment slipped 12.4 percent to $122.59, while ticket revenue per PFS tumbled 19.4 percent. Its total operating expenses rose 9.4 percent year over year to $431.1 million in the quarter. The company ended the quarter with unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $769.3 million. "Our second quarter 2015 performance was negatively impacted by an unusual number of storms and I want to thank our team members and business partners for their hard work and dedication in serving our customers and helping us to restore our operations to normal," said Ben Baldanza, Spirit's Chief Executive Officer. "In addition to an unusual number of storms, we've recently seen a noticeable change in competitive pricing behavior. But, the fundamentals of our business haven't changed: we continue to grow our network while maintaining high margins, delivering strong returns, and offering our customers low fares." Spirit Airlines shares rose 0.62 percent to $61.75 in pre-market trading.