by Donald Wood
Last updated: 3:15 PM ET, Thu October 21, 2021
American Airlines announced a profit of $169 million for the third quarter, with expectations that the winter holiday travel period would increase demand.
According to The Associated Press, American officials revealed during a third-quarter conference call the total profit was impacted by the late-summer surge of the coronavirus Delta variant that caused bookings to dip and cancellations to increase.
The airline said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be down 20 percent compared to the same period in 2019, while capacity will be only 11-13 percent below the third quarter of 2019. The carrier also plans to operate over 6,000 daily flights during peak days in the fourth quarter.
American operated more than 5,600 flights a day during the third quarter.
"While the rise of the COVID-19 delta variant delayed some of our revenue recovery, it has not stopped our progress," American Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said.
The AP is reporting that American's $169 million was possible due to the $992 million in federal pandemic relief the carrier received. Without the government assistance, the airline would have lost $641 million.
Earlier this month, the carrier revealed that members of American's AAdvantage and JetBlue's TrueBlue Mosaic loyalty programs would now receive elite benefits, including priority check-in, baggage, security and boarding when traveling with either carrier.
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