American Airlines reinstated its annual guidance. It’s way worse than before.
With the first half of the year in the rearview mirror (something jets do not have), American Airlines sees potentially rougher skies ahead.
American, which had pulled its full-year forecast in April along with rivals Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, decided it was safe to give annual guidance again with its second-quarter earnings report. The problem? The forecast is way, way worse than Wall Street expected and far worse than American’s forecast looked back in April before it got pulled.
American said it expects full-year earnings per share to land somewhere in the range of -$0.20 to $0.80. Wall Street analysts were calling for a full-year profit of $0.72, according to FactSet. And before the guidance was pulled back in April, American was expecting earnings of $1.70 to $2.70.
Shares fell 7% in premarket trading.
The airline’s actual second-quarter earnings surprised to the upside. It posted earnings of $0.91 per share in the second quarter, comfortably beating analyst expectations of $0.78. The result is down 10% from the same period last year.
Quarterly revenue reached $14.4 billion, better than expected and up slightly from the $14.3 billion the carrier raked in last year. In April, American anticipated sales to land between a 2% drop and a 1% gain.