In a market update, American Airlines stated that it has experienced “continued strength in net bookings and load factors”. As of June 2, American’s seven day moving average of its net bookings was approximately 90% of the level experienced in the same period of 2019. And its domestic load factor for the month of May was approximately 84% and greater than 88% over the Memorial Day holiday.
American says that it expects this strength in bookings to “continue through the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter and, assuming continuation of current trends, expects leisure yields to approach or exceed the corresponding 2019 levels during the peak summer travel period”.
The airline warns that although business demand continues to be weak, it is starting to see “increased demand among small and medium sized enterprises and certain large corporate customers”.
American continues to expect second quarter system capacity (total available seat miles) to be down 20% to 25% and total revenue to be down approximately 40% versus the second quarter of 2019.
Given the strength of summer bookings, for the first time since the pandemic began, American states that it generated cash for the month of May and expects to end the second quarter with more than $20 billion of total liquidity versus its previous guidance of $19.5 billion.