American Airlines Posts Record Revenues Despite Operational Issues
Skift Take
Business travel is back, flights are full, and the money is flowing in at American Airlines. All good, right? Not even close as operational and staffing issues are expected to linger.
One sure way to generate lots of money in the airline industry is too artificially limit flying. That may sound counterintuitive but supply and demand dictates that ticket prices will rise if travel demand is high and there are few seats available.
That is what American Airlines saw in the second quarter. During a period when the carrier was forced to fly less than hoped due to a variety of issues, including a pilot shortage in the U.S., and airfares increased at historic rates, American generated record revenues of $13.4 billion for the period that ended in June.
"Customers continue to come back to travel in record numbers," American CEO Robert Isom said during the airline's second quarter earnings call Thursday. This is "one of the busiest summers that we've ever experienced," he added.
And busy in a good way: revenues from business travelers, who often buy more expensive tickets and products than leisure flyers, have fully recovered to pre-pandemic
