American Airlines announced its third quarter results on Thursday, revealing a net loss of US$2.4 billion. The American carrier said that during the third quarter, passenger demand and load factors improved, but said that they “continue to be significantly below 2019 levels.”
In terms of revenue, American Airlines’ total operating revenue decreased from US$11.9 billion in Q3 of 2019 to US$3.17 billion for Q3 of 2020, a decrease of more than 74%. More specifically, passenger revenue for the American carrier fell by 76.9%. The carrier said it earned US$2.54 billion in passenger revenue this quarter, however for the same quarter in 2019 the carrier earned approximately US$11 billion.
Last week, AeroNewsX reported on the third quarter results of both Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Delta Air Lines recorded a third quarter loss of US$5.4 billion, while United recorded a Q3 loss of US$1.8 billion, the best of all the other large, “legacy” carriers. Delta Air Lines revealed that its average daily cash burn for the third quarter of 2020 was 24 million dollars per day. United Airlines had an average daily cash burn of 21 million dollars per day and is in a much stronger position in comparison to the other American carriers. Taking American Airlines latest figures, the carrier has been able to reduce its average cash burn from 58 million dollars in Q2 to US$44 million for this quarter.
American Airlines Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said, “During the third quarter, we took action to reduce our costs, strengthen our financial position, and ensure our customers return to travel with confidence.” The Chief Executive added that, “We have a long road ahead and our team remains fully engaged and focused not just on managing through the pandemic, but on making sure we are prepared for when demand returns. We are confident that the continued efforts of our team and the actions we have taken will drive customer confidence and strengthen our company for the future.”
American Airlines Airbus A330-200 registered N291AY. Photo by Andrew Pries | AeroNewsX.
AirbusA330-200 Retirement
American Airlines also announced plans to retire all of its 15 Airbus A330-200 aircraft. In April this year, the airline decided to accelerate the retirement of the Boeing 757, Boeing 767, Embraer E190, Airbus A330-300, Bombardier CRJ-200 and other regional aircraft. At the time, the airline said that by removing these aircraft it will “bring forward cost savings and efficiencies associated with operating fewer aircraft types.” Now American Airlines has decided to permanently retire all 15 of its Airbus A330-200 aircraft, describing it as an “aggressive action to reduce costs and preserve cash.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic, American Airlines had a total of 24 A330s, which were all former US Airways planes. The American carrier’s fifteen A330-200s and nine A330-300s mainly flew trans-Atlantic routes, with some on popular domestic services. The news of the A330 retirement means that three long haul aircraft types have now been removed from the aircraft’s future fleet.
American Airlines long haul fleet will now mainly consist of the Boeing 777 and 787. According to planespotter.net, American Airlines has 47 Boeing 777-200s, which are on average about 20 years old. The American carrier also has 20 Boeing 777-300s that are on average six years old. In addition, American Airlines also has 23 Boeing 787-8s and 22 Boeing 787-9s, which are about four and three years old respectively.
In addition to removing the Airbus A330-200 from its fleet, American Airlines have also deferred the delivery of 18 737 MAX aircraft which were scheduled to be delivered in 2021 and 2022. These have now been pushed back till 2023 and 2024. American Airlines said that it has finalized a series of sale-leaseback transactions to finance all of the planned Airbus A321neo deliveries. It still expects to receive the remainder of the aircraft order in 2021.
