American Airlines reported profit increase in Q1 2015

The US airliner American Airlines reported profit increase in Q1 2015, due to strong domestic demand and falling fuel prices. The airliner announced that profit without one-time effects amounted to 1.2 billion USD, or 1.73 USD per share, which is three times more than last year. This exceeded forecasts of 1.70 USD per share. The sales fell with 1.7% to 9.83 billion USD, which coincides with the forecasts of analysts.

American Airlines is the last of the six largest US airlines, which according to data compiled by Bloomberg will reach a record 2.9 billion USD profit. The better performance in North America contrasts the results of some of the international markets where the strong dollar and weak demand had a negative effect on sales. The revenues from passenger space for a mile of American Airlines in Latin America fell by 6.2% and passenger traffic – by 5.8%, mainly due to the negative impact of the strong USD on demand. On the other side of the Pacific revenues from passenger space for a mile fell with 6.9% amid increased competition and growth of 35% in traffic.

American Airlines forecasts that according to the original plans of the internal capacity of the company had to increase by 3%, the increase will be by between 2 and 3%. The number of seats will also rose by 2% compared with earlier estimates of growth between 2 and 3%.

The costs for most airplanes of American Airlines fell by 43% last year, as the average price per gallon of fuel fell almost doubled to 1.83 USD per gallon.