American Airlines Reports Q2 Financial Results

"We are very pleased to report a quarterly profit, excluding net special items, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, driven by the strong demand environment and the hard work of our team," said American's CEO Robert Isom. "The American Airlines team has stepped up to meet the surge in demand for air travel while running a reliable operation in very challenging conditions. We are encouraged by the trends we're seeing across the business, and we remain well-positioned for the continued recovery."

Running a reliable operation

In the second quarter, American flew a schedule that was more than 25% larger than its closest competitor as measured by total departures. American and its regional partners operated more than 500,000 flights in the quarter, an 8% increase over the second quarter of 2021, with an average load factor of 87%, which is 10 points higher than the second quarter of 2021. Despite a challenging operating environment in June, American's on-time departure rate, on-time arrival rate and completion factor for the second quarter of 2022 were each improved versus the second quarter of 2019.

American is proud to offer customers the youngest fleet among U.S. network carriers and the largest network of any U.S. airline, with an expected average of more than 5,400 daily departures for the remainder of the summer.

Returning to profitabilityAmerican produced revenues of USD 13.4 billion in the second quarter, a 12.2% increase versus 2019 and a record for any quarter in company history. This record revenue was achieved while flying 8.5% less capacity than the same period in 2019, and there remains significant revenue potential going forward to the extent business and international travel improve further.

Domestic leisure travel remains very strong and surpassed 2019 levels in the second quarter and American also saw improvements in corporate and government revenue in the quarter. Demand for international travel also improved steadily during the second quarter and the company expects this to continue following the lifting of the COVID-19 testing requirement for inbound travel to the U.S.

Liquidity and balance sheetAmerican ended the second quarter with USD 15.6 billion of total available liquidity. Total debt reduction continues to be a top priority and the company remains on track to reduce overall debt levels by USD 15 billion by the end of 2025.

In the second quarter, the company made USD 1.0 billion in scheduled debt and finance lease payments, including paying off the remaining USD 433 million outstanding balance of its USD 750 million unsecured senior notes that matured in June. To date, American has reduced its overall debt by USD 5.2 billion from peak levels in the second quarter of 2021.

Guidance and investor update

American will continue to match its forward capacity with the resources required to support its operation. Based on current trends, the company expects its third-quarter total revenue to be 10% to 12% higher versus the third quarter of 2019 on 8% to 10% lower capacity. Based on these demand trends and the current fuel price forecast, the company expects to be profitable in the third quarter.