American Airlines Q1 report: CEO forecasts record revenue in Q2

American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL) shares opened more than 10% up on Thursday after the air carrier said its revenue more than doubled on a year-over-year basis in Q1, resulting in a narrower-than-expected loss. AAL also gave promising guidance for the future.

Key takeaways from American Airlines’ Q1 report

• Lost $1.64 billion in the first quarter versus the year-ago figure of $1.25 billion.
• Per-share loss came in at $2.52, an increase from last year’s $1.97.
• Adjusted for one-time items, per-share loss stood at $2.32 in fiscal Q1.
• Sales soared 122% YoY to $8.90 billion, as per the earnings press release.
• FactSet consensus was for $2.39 of adjusted per-share loss on $8.79 billion in revenue.
• Traffic was up 97.2%, load factor climbed to 74.4%, and capacity increased 57.6%.

Future outlook and CEO Isom’s remarks

For the current fiscal quarter, American Airlines forecasts capacity in the range of 92% to 94% of pre-pandemic levels. It expects revenue to beat 2019 levels by 6.0% to 8.0% in Q2, after revenue hit an all-time high in March. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, CEO Robert Isom said:

Much of the strength is in domestic travel so far, but the chief executive is confident that business and international will also recover soon.