American Airlines tops estimates in its fiscal Q4

American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL) is trending up in premarket on Thursday after reporting better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter.

American Airlines' future guidance

American Airlines does, however, expect to report a loss again in its current financial quarter.

Based on fuel prices and demand, the flagship air carrier sees 15 cents to 35 cents of loss in Q1. Robert Isom – its chief executive said today in a press release:

For the full year, American Airlines now forecasts up to $3.25 a share of earnings. The Nasdaq-listed firm lowered its debt by about $3.2 billion in 2023. $AAL is currently down more than 20% versus its 52-week high.

American Airlines Q4 earnings snapshot

• Earned $19 million versus the year-ago $803 million
• Per-share earnings also declined from $1.14 to 3 cents
• Adjusted EPS printed at 29 cents as per the earnings report
• Revenue inched down 1.0% year-on-year to $13.06 billion
• Consensus was 10 cents a share on $13.02 billion revenue

Note that American Airlines doesn’t have Boeing 737 Max 9 that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently grounded in its fleet. CEO Isom also said on Thursday: