Q1 Earnings
 

$227 million net income and $0.45 EPS, in line with guidance

Operating margin of 4.6%, an improvement of 8.1 points year-over-year

Generated $1.4 billion in operating cash flow in the quarter

Record first‑quarter passenger, operating, and unit revenues

Managed business revenue performance a March and quarterly record

Good margins despite $164 million in added fuel costs. Would have been 0.67 eps/$394 million without the fuel hit… in line with DAL and UAL. Looks like this would have been a bang out quarter and year at the top of the industry if the fuel costs weren’t so elevated. The company is slowly but successfully transforming from a cost control airline to a revenue management airline. Excited to be heading back to historical performance and to see what product enhancements are coming down the pipeline. We can still be a competitive top
player despite the naysayers.

YoY changes are massive…fae from slowly. 229m income vs 149m loss Q1 2025 is a huge swing

and in line with estimates.
I wonder if Q2 will be as well. If so it'll be a good year for buy backs and C suite bonuses.

and profit sharing, if fuel costs return to normal soon. $50m in the pot already!

Sadly I think Q2 will be about the same as the full burden of elevated fuel will be fully present this quarter. That said, at least we are making money, do decently well at cost control and efficiency, and have the lowest debt in the industry. Good year for revenue initiatives to come online. I like our hand of cards moving forward.

same. Fuel at the spot price it’s at right now will cost about an extra billion this quarter. Sweet.

2.3% profit sharing if it stays the same

Some good, some bad in the earnings. So as of today, only SWA and UAL are in the black on a GAAP basis, Non GAAP, add in DAL. The initiatives worked. 60% of customers upgraded from the basic fare. Their is your profit. $1.4 Billion in operational cash flow with capex of $630 million. Thats the real biggie. First time in a long time, more cash came in then was spent. Another good nugget is ATL(air traffic liability) was up almost 16%. Yield's were impressive and load factor actually increased with it. Usually one sacrifices the other. Just be glad this all got turned on. If SWA was still doing open seating, the financial picture would be different. 2nd quarter guidance is for .35-.65 EPS. Not great but not horrible. From its peak, Fuel prices are almost 18% lower since the war started. The bad is they suspended guidance for the year. They just don't know. Which basically means their maybe losses come the fall. EM came, saw and demanded change. They got it. Problem is the BOD still demand's healthy buybacks when able. They spent excess cash on buybacks to the tune of $1.25 Billion. Good news is thats all in treasury stock now worth $14.7 Billion. Their has been a lot talk over the years about only airlines that have real premium make money. This is proof that networks and market share matter. The bigger the network, the better the outcome. Although premium is a real thing and most likely eventually will land here at some point, it's not all about two by two and lounges. Money is to be made, as long as you have the market share and network. Airline's that have a limited network, no matter how great the product is, will still have issues without the network to support it.

JetBlue is the one that comes to mind with this. Mint is great, but their network sucks unless you are soley easy coast. Thank you, as always, for breaking it down for us simpletons to understand, as I wouldn't have it in me to read the earnings.

jet blue's product is very good. I'd ride on them if given a choice but like you said their network isnt great.
it's too bad. Never had a bad experience on them but I just dont see it working out for them