American Airlines Group, parent of American Airlines and US Airways, has posted a net income of $480 million for the three months ended March 31. The results reverse a combined net loss of $297 million in 2013 for the merged airline – this comprises a $341 million net loss for American and a $44 million net profit for US Airways.
Combined revenue for the airline rose 5.6% to $10 billion, while expenses during the period decreased 0.3% year-over-year to $9.27 billion, which resulted in an operating profit of $730 million.
American’s income was boosted by $381 million it received from the cash sale of slots at Washington’s Reagan airport (DCA) and New York LaGuardia (LGA).
Combined traffic rose 1.8% to 45.83 billion RPMs on a 2.7% increase in capacity to 56.83 billion ASMs. The airline group’s load factor dropped just 0.7 percentage points to 80.6%.