“It was another fantastic quarter for American, driven by the hard work of our team to deliver a reliable operation for our customers and the continued strong demand for our product,” said American’s CEO Robert Isom. “Our operation is performing at historically strong levels, and we have worked to refresh our fleet and build a comprehensive global network, all of which helped to produce record revenues in the second quarter. We will build on this momentum the rest of the year and continue to prioritize reliability, profitability, accountability and strengthening our balance sheet.”
Resources
Running a reliable operation
The American Airlines team delivered a strong operational performance during the quarter, achieving its best-ever second-quarter completion factor and controllable completion factor3. American and its regional partners operated nearly 500,000 flights in the second quarter, with an average load factor of approximately 86%.
American delivered a record Memorial Day weekend mainline completion factor and controllable completion factor, while operating its largest-ever mainline Memorial Day weekend schedule. The momentum continued into June, with the American team delivering a record June completion factor and controllable completion factor, despite weather and air traffic control challenges. In the second quarter, American achieved its best-ever April, May and June controllable completion factors3 and delivered 11 more combined zero-cancellation days versus the same period last year.
Returning to profitability
American produced record quarterly revenues of $14.1 billion in the second quarter. The strong revenue performance was driven by continued broad-based demand strength and American’s completion factor performance in the quarter. Demand was particularly strong in the month of June driven by an increase in close-in bookings. Domestic and short-haul international revenue continue to perform well, and the airline has seen noticeable strength in long-haul international demand and yield performance.
In the second quarter, the company produced an operating margin of 15.4% and net income of $1.3 billion on a GAAP basis. Excluding net special items1, American produced net income of $1.4 billion in the second quarter.
Liquidity and balance sheet
American generated operating cash flow and free cash flow of nearly $1.8 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively, in the second quarter. The company reduced total debt4 by $387 million in the quarter. Strengthening the balance sheet continues to be a top priority, and American is nearly two-thirds of the way to its goal of reducing total debt by $15 billion by the end of 2025. As of June 30, 2023, American had reduced its total debt by approximately $9.4 billion from peak levels in mid-2021. The company’s commitment to strengthening its balance sheet is being recognized, as evidenced by Fitch upgrading the company’s rating two notches, to B+. The company ended the quarter with approximately $14.9 billion of total available liquidity, comprised of cash and short-term investments plus undrawn capacity under revolving and other short-term credit facilities.
Guidance and investor update
Based on demand trends and the current fuel price forecast and excluding the impact of special items, the company expects its third-quarter 2023 adjusted earnings per diluted share2 to be between $0.85 and $0.95. American now expects its full-year 2023 adjusted earnings per diluted share2 to be between $3.00 and $3.75. The company’s forecasts include the estimated impact of anticipated new labor agreements.
For additional financial forecasting detail, please refer to the company’s investor update, furnished with this press release with the SEC on Form 8-K. This filing will also be available at aa.com/investorrelations.
Conference call and webcast details
The company will conduct a live audio webcast of its financial results conference call at 7:30 a.m. CT today. The call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis at aa.com/investorrelations. An archive of the webcast will be available on the website through Aug. 20.
Notes
See the accompanying notes in the financial tables section of this press release for further explanation, including a reconciliation of all GAAP to non-GAAP financial information, including the calculation of free cash flow.
- The company recognized $33 million of net special items after the effect of taxes in the second quarter, which principally included charges associated with debt extinguishments and mark-to-market adjustments on equity investments.
- Adjusted earnings per diluted share guidance excludes the impact of net special items. The company is unable to reconcile certain forward-looking projections to GAAP as the nature or amount of net special items cannot be determined at this time.
- Excludes second-quarter 2020 and second-quarter 2021, which were impacted by significantly reduced capacity due to COVID-19.
- All references to total debt include debt, finance leases, operating lease liabilities and pension obligations.
