American Airlines during the second quarter turned what it called a record net quarterly profit of $864 million, with operating revenues more than 10 percent higher than combined revenues for American Airlines and US Airways in the same quarter a year ago.
Compared with combined AA/US Airways operations last year, total mainline and regional passenger revenue per available seat mile for American increased 5.9 percent year over year, the company reported. Yield, a representation of average fare paid per mile, increased 6.5 percent.
American increased second-quarter capacity 3.1 percent year over year, and revenue passenger miles increased 2.5 percent, leading to a load factor of 84 percent for the quarter, down half a percentage point from the second quarter of 2013.
AA president Scott Kirby said the newly merged company "feels good about early progress in winning corporate business" as well as the overall demand outlook. It currently is capitalizing on "large synergies in New York" with the combination of American's transcontinental services with shuttle and other domestic service brought in by US Airways.
Domestic RASM increased 9.9 percent year over year during the quarter, and domestic yield was up 9.4 percent. Domestic load factor increased by 0.4 percentage points to 87.3 percent.
In its outlook, American executives said their presence in Latin America, which Kirby called the world's worst region for airlines, will offset PRASM growth against its competitors. Besides Venezuela, where American significantly cut capacity beginning this month, Argentina is weak as is Brazil, in light of diverted business and leisure travel during the FIFA World Cup, he said. American's load factor in Latin America dropped by 4.3 percentage points to 75.9 percent, and PRASM was down 2.5 percent.
Transatlantic PRASM increased 2.7 percent year over year, while the load factor declined by 2.4 percentage points to 81.9 percent. Kirby said he expected "modest declines" as industry has increased capacity for the routes.