American Airlines’ parent company AMR Corporation has incurred a loss of US$238 million for the third quarter compared with a US$162m loss in the corresponding quarter of 2011. The airline said costs associated with Chapter 11 restructuring were responsible for the loss, the majority of which was related to employee severance payments.
The result comes despite a dramatic improvement in profits for the group of US$110m, a US$272m improvement on the preceding period. The profit was derived from US$6.4 billion in consolidated revenue.
Yield improved by 3.5 per cent, in part supported by a reduction in available capacity, which boosted load factors to 85.5 per cent – a record result for American Airlines.
The airline’s cash position remains strong at US$5.1 billion in cash and short-term investments.
“Strong yield and record load factors generated unit revenue growth that topped the industry in each of the three months, continuing a trend of outperforming the industry that we’ve seen throughout the year,” said Virasb Vahidi, AMR’s chief commercial officer. “We saw unit revenue increases across all five of our hubs and across all international entities.”
During the third quarter American continued its fleet renewal program, taking delivery of seven 737-800s with another nine due for delivery in the fourth quarter.
