For the fourth quarter 2018, Spirit Airlines’ total operating revenue was $862.8 million, an increase of 29.5% compared to the fourth quarter 2017. Net income was $91.9 million. Total operating revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) increased 11.4% compared to the same period last year. Cost increased 26.4% year over year to $726.7 million, driven by increases in salaries, wages and benefits, fuel rates, and depreciation and amortization. Aircraft fuel expense increased in the fourth quarter 2018 by 31.1% year over year.
The airline credited the quarterly results as benefitting from its improved yield management processes, non-ticket revenue initiatives, strategic network re-orientation, and a strong operating environment.
For the full year 2018, Spirit’s net income was $155.7 million. Spirit ended 2018 with unrestricted cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $1.1 billion.
“Our robust fourth quarter profit closes out a very successful year for Spirit,” said Ted Christie, Spirit’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Despite cost pressures from significantly higher fuel and pilot wage rates, Spirit produced strong earnings growth for 2018, made great strides in improving our customer satisfaction metrics and delivered excellent operational performance… In 2018, our initiatives to drive both passenger and ancillary revenue produced healthy top-line revenue growth, and we expect them to drive additional benefit in 2019. Our revenue initiatives, together with our continued strong cost and operational performance position us well to succeed in the year ahead.”
WestJet reports fourth quarter and full year results
WestJet reported full year net earnings of $91.5 million, or $0.80 per fully diluted share, compared to net earnings of $279.1 million, or $2.38 per fully diluted share in the full year 2017. In the fourth quarter of 2018 the airline achieved net earnings of $29.2 million, or $0.26 per fully diluted share. This result compares with net earnings of $47.8 million, or $0.41 per fully diluted share reported in the fourth quarter of 2017.
"In 2018 we executed several significant milestones on our path to becoming a high-value global network airline," said Ed Sims, WestJet President and CEO. "As we enter 2019, we continue to build momentum and are well-positioned to deliver on our strategic initiatives and expand margins. I would like to thank every WestJetter for their hard work through an especially busy holiday season culminating in our WestJet mainline business achieving the highest completion rate in North America in December, as measured by FlightStats.