Excluding daily payment of $8 million towards regular debt and severance packages, it was cash flow positive, the company said in a regulatory filing,

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The average yield across US investment-grade bonds hit 2.28 per cent at the end of last week, according to an index compiled by ICE Data Services, up 0.17 percentage points since the end of February and 0.5 points so far in 2021. The rise in yields, which reflects a fall in prices, marks the bonds’ worst performance since Covid-19 struck a year ago. Emerging signs of economic recovery, a quickening vaccine rollout and the recent passing of US president Joe Biden’s stimulus package have fuelled expectations of higher growth and inflation and jolted Treasury yields higher. That has eroded the value of bonds that offer fixed interest payments, especially higher quality corporate bonds that pay only a relatively small “spread” above Treasury yields

American Airlines warns that steep losses continued in first quarter of 2021

In a rare move, Fort Worth-based American released financial data ahead of its earnings report next week, saying it lost about $27 million a day in the first quarter.

An American Airlines customer assistance representative checks-in a passenger in Terminal A at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Wednesday, March 24, 2021. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox)By Kyle Arnold

8:20 AM on Apr 13, 2021 CDT
American Airlines warned investors Tuesday that it expects to report a more than $1.2 billion quarterly loss next week, as a recent uptick in ticket sales didn’t prevent it from losing upwards of $27 million a day for the first three months of 2021.

Fort Worth-based American was the second major carrier, following United, to warn that the COVID-19 pandemic was still battering financial results, a sign that it could take much longer to repair the financial damage from the last year.

The newest estimate, disclosed in a regulatory filing, means American’s net losses during the pandemic will total more than $10 billion, even after its more than $10 billion in government grants to help cover payroll.
Airlines are struggling to end their financial losses more than a year after the pandemic began, and analysts don’t expect carriers to see a profit until at least the third quarter of this year.

Carriers are rejiggering schedules with more summertime leisure routes to warm weather and outdoor destinations in hopes of filling planes that have been mostly empty since March 2020.

It’s often been a two-steps-forward, one-step-back recovery for airlines. The industry has seen its best passenger numbers of the pandemic over the last six weeks with spring break, but those cheaper tickets are being sold mostly to leisure customers who tend to fly mostly during school holidays.

American reported some financial progress after a year of steep losses. The carrier said its “core cash burn” was approximately $4 million a day in March, which includes $8 million a day in debt interest charges. Without that debt, the company would have made a daily profit in March.

First-quarter sales will be down about 62% compared with the first quarter of 2019, American said. United said Monday that its first-quarter sales would be down about 66% compared with the same period.

American will bring back the last of its furloughed flight attendants in early May, and carriers are putting more jets in the air this summer with hopes that vaccine distribution will result in more travel.

While recent positive signs have brought hope to airlines, the industry is still far from emerging from the financial mess that the pandemic brought.

On a separate note, American Airlines revised the terms of its agreement with The Boeing Company (BA - Free Report) to defer and convert five 787-8 aircraft to 787-9 aircraft. The deliveries will now take place in 2023. Deliveries of the remaining 14 787-8 aircraft have been rescheduled to the end of first-quarter 2022. Additionally, the delivery of 18 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft have been postponed to 2023-2024 from 2021-2022.