American Airlines Beat On Q3 Earnings, Expects Robust Q4 Travel Demand

American Airlines Group Inc AAL reported third-quarter FY21 operating revenue growth of 20% sequentially to $8.97 billion, beating the consensus of $8.94 billion.
Adjusted EPS improved to $(0.99) compared to $(5.54) in 3Q20, beating consensus of $(1.04).
Total operating expenses grew by 38.5% Y/Y to $8.37 billion.
The airlines reported an operating profit of $595 million, compared to a loss of $(2.87) billion a year ago.
Revenue passenger miles totaled 48.07 billion (18.12 billion in 3Q20), Available seat miles of 61.11 billion (30.77 billion), Total revenues per ASM of 14.68c (10.31c), and Passenger load factor was 78.7% (up 1,980 bps from 58.9% in 3Q20).
The airlines ended the quarter with ~$18 billion of total available liquidity after the prepayment of a $950 million spare parts term loan.
The company continues to expect robust demand during peak travel periods in Q4, with more than 6,000 peak-day departures.
Q4 Outlook (compared to 4Q19): American Airlines expects capacity to be down ~11% - 13%; revenue to be down ~20%; pre-tax margin excluding net special items to be negative 16% - negative 18%.
Price Action: AAL shares are trading higher by 1.13% at $19.73 during the premarket session on Thursday.