American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) , a premier passenger carrier released impressive traffic results for the month of May. The company witnessed a 2.6% rise in traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), showing a record 19.9 billion.
On a year-over-year basis, the consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) inched up 2.3% to 24.3 billion. Also, the load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers increased to 82.1% from 81.9% in May 2016 as traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion.
On a year-to-date basis, the carrier registered a meager 0.3% rise in RPMs to 89.5 billion, while ASMs remained flat at 111.2 billion. Besides, load factor increased 30 basis points year over year to 80.5%. Also, the passenger count (PAX) declined marginally on a year-to-date basis.
The company maintains projection for second quarter 2017 total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) to rise in the range of 3.5%-5.5% year-over-year. Additionally, its second quarter pre-tax margin excluding special items is expected to vary between 12%-14%, unchanged from the previous prediction.
American Airlines Group, Inc. Price
American Airlines Group, Inc. Price | American Airlines Group, Inc. Quote
American Airlines currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in airline space are Air France-KLM SA (OTC:AFLYY) , Deutsche Lufthansa (DE:LHAG) AG (OTC:DLAKY) and International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG) SA (OTC:ICAGY) . All sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Shares of Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa and International Consolidated Airlines gained above 58%, 40% and 6% respectively, over a period of three months.
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