Southwest Airlines And American Airlines on Thursday raised their fourth-quarter forecasts, citing strong demand and better fares that pushed airline stocks higher.
Southwest said fourth-quarter unit sales are more likely to rise 5.5 percent to 7 percent from a 12 months ago, while it had previously forecast a rise of not more than 5.5 percent. The airline said its network changes to weed out unprofitable flights were paying off and that demand seemed to be solid next 12 months.
“The company is encouraged by recent sales trends and forward bookings, including leisure travel in the fourth quarter, and currently expects strong sales trends and performance of tactical initiatives to continue into 2025,” it said in a securities filing.
Southwest also said it will also complete its first aircraft sale-leaseback in the primary quarter.
American Airlines expects unit revenues to be flat in the ultimate three months of the 12 months and increase by as much as 1% over the identical period in 2023, compared with an earlier estimate that had unit revenues increase by as much as 3% % would decline last 12 months. American also raised its adjusted earnings estimate to 55 cents to 75 cents from 25 cents to 50 cents per share.
American also said Thursday that it had picked City Barclays is the one bank card provider to waive it in a long-awaited deal.
A day before, JetBlue Airways raised its revenue forecast for the quarter and told employees it will proceed to chop unprofitable routes and make adjustments to its 2025 European summer schedule later this week.
image credit : www.cnbc.com