American Airlines lost $8.9 billion in a year of pandemic

American Airlines lost $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter as people stayed put in the pandemic, sending the carrier's revenue plunging by nearly two-thirds from the same period a year ago.

American predicted that similar revenue trends from late 2020 will carry over into the first three months of 2021.

The results ended a dismal year in which American Airlines Group Inc lost $8.9 billion after earning nearly $1.7 billion the year before.

Shares of the Fort Worth, Texas, company surged more than 20 per cent in trading before the opening bell, seemingly part of volatile trading elsewhere on Wall Street this week.

American shares jumped as much as 10 per cent Wednesday with most of the market selling off strongly, which analysts attributed to volatile trading that has seen other stocks, notably GameStop, become wrapped up in a battle between small investors and short-sellers.

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Airlines are hoping that a rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 will lead to at least a partial recovery in travel this summer or later in the year. Most people flying now are leisure travellers who typically pay lower fares. Business and international travel, which are both crucial to American and rivals such as Delta and United, are expected to recover more slowly.

The fourth-quarter loss of $2.18 billion amounted to $3.86 per share, after removing special gains. That was slightly better than Wall Street expected. Industry analysts expected per-share loss of $3.92, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

A year earlier, American earned $414 million.

Quarterly revenue dropped more than 64 per cent, to $4.03 billion in the fourth quarter, not quite as bad as Wall Street had expected.

American said it expects first-quarter revenue to lag 60% to 65% below year-ago levels. The first quarter of 2020 included the first few weeks in which the pandemic caused a steep drop in air travel.