by Donald Wood
Last updated: 10:25 AM ET, Tue February 7, 2023
Spirit Airlines announced its fourth-quarter financial results were better than expected due to the strong demand for air travel.
The low-cost carrier reported total operating revenues for the fourth quarter reached $1.4 billion, an increase of 43.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, due in part to increased flight volume and more robust operating yields.
Total revenue per available seat miles (TRASM) was up 17 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 on 22.7 percent more capacity. Fare revenue per segment increased 22.1 percent to $64.31 over pre-pandemic totals and non-ticket revenue per segment jumped 22.9 percent to $71.31.
"I want to thank the entire Spirit Team for their contributions in overcoming the many challenges we faced during 2022," Spirit President and CEO Ted Christie said.
"Thanks to their dedication and relentless pursuit to implement more efficient and effective strategies, we made excellent progress on the steps necessary to return Spirit to sustained profitability," Christie continued.
Spirit took delivery of 10 new A320neo aircraft during the fourth quarter of 2022. The airline ended the quarter with 194 aircraft in its fleet, an increase of 33.8 percent since the end of the fourth quarter of 2019.
In terms of operations, the carrier's load factor was 81 percent in the fourth quarter, the Department of Transportation's (DOT) on-time performance was 73.2 percent and Completion Factor was 97 percent.
Spirit reported a pre-tax loss of $340.3 million and a pre-tax margin of negative 24.5 percent. Adjusted pre-tax income for the fourth quarter was $23.0 million and adjusted pre-tax margin was 1.7 percent.
"Leisure demand has remained strong and our team is doing a great job maximizing revenue production," Christie continued. "In the fourth quarter 2022, despite a significant number of weather-related flight cancellations during the peak holiday period, our team delivered better-than-expected unit revenue performance."
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