US Airlines face the losses because the higher costs during the hurricanes and the competitive markets.
According to a survey report by the International Air Transport Association industry group, the demand of air travel has rose worldwide more than 7% in the month of August alone from a year earlier and the airlines worldwide carried a record of 3.8 billion passengers last year.
But industry analysts expect that the largest U.S. airlines to post lower third-quarter profits, after carriers faced higher costs, hurricanes and competition during what is usually a busy quarter for travel.
Delta Air Lines, the second-largest U.S. airline company by traffic and the largest by market capitalization, has the post earnings per share of $1.53, a decline of 10.1 percent. Delta Airlines reports before the market opens on Wednesday.
Delta Air Lines last week warned the investors that Hurricane Irma cost it $120 million and trimmed its operating margin forecast to a range of 15.5 percent to 16.5 percent, from its estimate in July of a margin as high as 20 percent for the third quarter.
The competitors of Delta Airlines are facing profit declines too. The money forecasts showed that around 36 percent year-over-year decline to $1.99 a share for United Continental Holdings, which reports in October 18, while July-September profits at American Airlines will likely come in 24 percent lower than the year-earlier quarter at $1.34 a share. The estimates for domestic behemoth Southwest’s earnings per share will likely drop 6.1 percent to 0.87 cents.
The share stocks of the airline surged on Tuesday after American Airlines has slightly raised its estimate for key revenue metric. United Airlines forecast as the better-than-expected revenue for the third quarter.
