Southwest, American, JetBlue Surge In Earnings Reports

Any doubts that airline profits would begin to recede have been quelled with fourth-quarter and year-end earnings reports from U.S. carriers in the last two days.

Southwest Airlines did extraordinarily well, profiting the most in the last seven years according to Bloomberg News and topped by Thursday’s announcement that it exceeded analysts’ profit expectations. Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 75 cents a share topped the 69-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose two percent to $5.08 billion, Southwest said in a statement. Analysts had anticipated $5.03 billion.

“The outlook for 2017 has picked up from what we thought 90 days ago,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in an interview with Bloomberg. “That strengthening we saw in November and then even more in December has continued so far into January. Bookings for February and March also support that continuation.”

What is also encouraging about the news is that Southwest itself pulled back on the reins in the last two years, slowing its growth of flights and seat availability so that demand could catch up with supply.

Kelly did note, however, that flights to Cuba – Southwest was one of eight airlines approved by the DOT to offer service to the island – were not performing well.

“We’ll give it a full year and see how things progress,” he told Bloomberg. “There are people on those flights and they’re delighted to have us serving Cuba.”

JetBlue also announced results on Thursday and reported fourth-quarter sales of $1.64 billion, with quarterly profit of 50 cents a share beating analyst estimates by one cent.

American announced on Friday morning as well and reported a fourth-quarter 2016 pre-tax profit of $500 million, or $773 million excluding net special charges, and net profit of $289 million, or $475 million excluding net special charges

Full year 2016 pre-tax profits were $4.3 billion, or $5.1 billion excluding net special charges, and net profit of $2.7 billion, or $3.2 billion excluding net special charges.

“The American Airlines team continued to produce outstanding results in 2016, and outsiders are taking notice. Air Transport World named American as its 2017 Airline of the Year, citing our team’s integration work, operational and customer service improvements, and the significant investments we are making in our product. This recognition is entirely due to the great work of our 120,000 team members,” Doug Parker, chairman and CEO of American, said in a statement. “As we enter 2017, we will continue to make upgrades to American through new product initiatives. These include Basic Economy which will further our goal to offer the right fares and features for every customer, and, on international flights, our Premium Economy product. And no matter which product our customers choose, they’ll be transported on the youngest fleet among our large U.S. competitors.”

Follow @RichTravelPulse