Southwest posts $220 million loss final quarter after vacation meltdown

Southwest Airways reported a $220 million loss for the fourth quarter after the service’s vacation meltdown drove up bills and price it hundreds of thousands in income throughout what was anticipated to be the busiest journey interval for the reason that pandemic started.

It forecast a first-quarter loss, citing present “income and price tendencies,” whereas analysts have been anticipating a per-share revenue of 19 cents for the present quarter, primarily based on estimates compiled by Refinitiv.

Southwest earlier this month mentioned it canceled round 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 by Dec. 31 after extreme winter climate swept by the U.S.

The airline on Thursday mentioned the mass cancellations hit its pretax outcomes by $800 million, in step with its estimate earlier this month of a success between $725 million and $825 million.

Southwest shares had been down about 3% in premarket buying and selling after reporting outcomes.

Right here’s how Southwest carried out within the fourth quarter, in contrast with Wall Avenue expectations in keeping with Refinitiv consensus estimates:

Adjusted loss per share: 38 cents vs an anticipated lack of 12 cents.

Whole income: $6.17 billion vs an anticipated $6.16 billion.

Rival airways had largely recovered round Christmas after the winter climate, however Southwest’s expertise was unable to course of all of the flight adjustments and crews needed to name the service to get rescheduled. The service determined to scrap most of its flights within the following days to reset its operation, CEO Bob Jordan mentioned earlier this month.

The service has been processing tens of 1000’s of refunds and sophisticated reimbursements for vacationers who booked flights on different airways to get to their locations.

Southwest’s executives will maintain a name with analysts and media at 12:30 ET.

They’re more likely to face questions on any further prices and political fallout from its missteps in addition to an replace on expertise updates that goal to forestall one other meltdown.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.