American Airlines profitable in Q1 since deal

American Airlines Thursday reported a profit in its first full quarter since acquiring US Airways, benefitting from lower fuel costs and a gain from the sale of some airport slots. American, the biggest US airline by revenue, said first-quarter net income was $480 million, compared with a loss of $297 million from the combined year-ago results of American and US Airways. American and US Airways closed their merger in December 2013. Key drivers of the better results included a 4.8 percent drop in mainline fuel prices and an overall rise in customer volume, as well as a rise in revenues per passenger mile travelled. The airline also notched $137 million in special credits due mainly to the sale of airport slots at Reagan National Airport in Washington that was mandated by antitrust regulators for approval of the US Airways deal. American's results translated into 54 cents per share, excluding the impact from the asset sale and other unusual items. That was better than the 48 cents projected by Wall Street analysts. Revenues were $10.0 billion, up from the $9.47 billion of the combined American/US Airways revenues from a year ago. Analysts had forecast revenues of $10.02 billion. American shares rose 1.4 percent to $137.60 in pre-market trade.