After several months of projections by American Airlines that by the end of 2025 it would fully recapture the 11 points of indirect market share it had lost during its previous corporate distribution strategy, carrier executives on a Tuesday morning earnings call confirmed that the company had done so.
"We've fully restored our historical sales and distribution indirect share, with our focus now on further growth in 2026 and beyond," American CEO Robert Isom said. "We remained focused on the continued advancement of our sales, distribution and revenue management effort. … As we move into 2026, we will continue to deepen the relationships that we've built with our corporate and agency partners and capture greater share among high-value corporate travelers and premium leisure customers."
American initially lost the share amid a controversial sales and New Distribution Capability strategy that alienated some corporate customers, before reversing course in May 2024.
The carrier in the fourth quarter of 2025 "continued to see strength in our indirect channel, with managed corporate revenue up 12 percent year over year, which has strengthened further so far in 2026," American CFO Devon May said.
During the quarter, however, government traffic was down 50 percent year over year, largely driven by the government shutdown in October and November, Isom said. "It's still too soon to see how that's going to come back," he added. "But we built into the forecast the assumption that we'll have to be out there working hard to win back government business. But over time, I would anticipate that the government traffic returns. Washington is always going to be really important."
Echoing other carriers in recent earnings calls, American's premium revenue per seat mile performance in the fourth quarter "was superior to non-premium by 7 [percentage] points. Both domestically and internationally, [it's] very strong," American chief commercial officer Nat Pieper said. "And as we look forward into 2026, you'll continue to see our premium mix improve. We are taking delivery of [Airbus] A321XLRs, more [Boeing] 787-9P configuration, the P standing for premium. And we'll continue to deploy more premium seats into international markets. … We see a lot of depth in the premium market."
American Q4, Full-Year 2025 Metrics
American reported fourth-quarter passenger revenue of nearly $12.7 billion, up 2.1 percent year over year, with total revenue up 2.5 percent for the period to $14 billion. Full-year passenger revenue was nearly $49.7 billion, up 0.1 percent compared with 2024, while total 2025 revenue was more than $54.6 billion, a 0.8 percent increase.
American estimated that the government shutdown negatively affected revenue in the fourth quarter by $325 million.
Net income for the fourth quarter was $99 million compared with $590 million a year prior. Full-year net income was $111 million, down from the $846 million reported in 2024.
Fourth-quarter capacity increased 4.2 percent year over year and was up 2.2 percent for the full year. Average fuel cost was $2.42 per gallon for the quarter and $2.39 per gallon for the full year.
American projects first-quarter capacity to increase 3 percent to 5 percent year over year—inclusive of approximately a 1.5 percentage-point effect from this past weekend's U.S. winter storm, May said.
Revenue is estimated to increase 7 percent to 10 percent for the period, "driven by improvement in the domestic entity from expected growth in corporate passenger volumes and as demand continues to recover as we lap the challenges experienced in the first quarter of 2025," he added. That projection includes an estimated negative revenue impact of between $150 million to $200 million from the winter storm.
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