Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, has doubled its net income during the first quarter from $37 million net income reported in Q1 2013 to $94 million this quarter. Excluding the impact of mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments of $8 million ($5 million after tax, or $0.07 per diluted share), the company reported record adjusted net income of $89 million, or $1.28 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $44 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, in 2013.
"Our record first quarter results reflect strong demand for our service and the efforts we've taken to improve the value we bring to our customers," CEO Brad Tilden said. "Our solid foundation of award-winning service, excellent operational performance, low costs and low fares, and the best employees in the business will help us sustain our success in the face of increasing competition."
Revenue increased 7.9% year-over-year to $1.22 billion as operating expenses came to $1.08 billion, up 1.1% over the previous year.
Combined, the Alaska Air Group airlines carried 3.7% more passengers during the reporting period totaling 6.4 billion RPMs on a 4.1% increase in capacity to 7.5 billion ASMs. Its passenger load factor was down very slightly to 85.4% from the 85.7% in Q1 2013.
The company reported 4,737,000 mainline passengers for the first quarter, up 4.5% year-over-year from the 4,534,000 passengers carried in the year-ago quarter. Mainline yield rose 3.4% year-over-year to 13.34 cents. CASM ex-fuel grew 1.2% year-over-year to 7.68 cents.