American Airlines Posts Higher Revenue Despite Omicron Hit

Still, the quarter included the challenge of navigating the emergence of the Omicron variant, which upended what airline executives had expected would be a smooth and lucrative holiday travel season. Airlines canceled over 30,000 U.S. flights between Christmas Eve and Jan. 11, as Covid-19 infections ravaged airline workforces, and winter storms further derailed operations in many parts of the country.

“Over the past year, we have experienced periods of high travel demand countered by periods of decreased demand due to new Covid-19 variants. This volatility has created the most challenging planning environment in the history of commercial aviation,” American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker, who is set to retire at the end of March, said in a statement.

Last week, Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Ed Bastian said the Omicron variant resulted in a roughly $75 million hit in the fourth quarter, including lost revenue from canceled flights and a slowdown in bookings.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. on Wednesday said the emergence of the Omicron variant dented near-term bookings and will slow its recovery, but said the setback is likely to be temporary. As a result, the Chicago-based airline is scaling back its schedule in the first months of the year.

American Airlines didn’t quantify the impact from Omicron, but said it saw an increase in sick calls toward the end of the year due to the Omicron variant.

The company said it expects its current-quarter revenue to be down between 20% and 22% compared with the first quarter of 2019. American expects first-quarter capacity to be down roughly 8% to 10% compared with the same period in 2019.

The airline said it would nonetheless continue to match its forward capacity with observed bookings trends.

Omicron isn’t the only challenge airlines are facing as they navigate the rocky recovery from the pandemic. Carriers are also facing steeper costs for labor and fuel amid a tight labor market and rising prices.

Despite American Airlines’ increase in revenue, the company posted a net loss of $931 million, compared with a loss of $2.18 billion in the year-ago period. On a per-share basis, the company posted a loss of $1.44, compared with a loss of $3.81 a share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company posted a loss of $1.42 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting an adjusted loss of $1.46 a share.

Operating revenues rose to $9.43 billion from $4.03 billion a year earlier. Analysts were looking for $9.34 billion.

Load factor, or the portion of seats filled, was 80.2% in the quarter, up 16.1 percentage points from a year earlier. Capacity rose 83.9%, but was still down 13% from 2019, the company said.

—Alison Sider contributed to this article.