Alaska Air drops after Q3 profit missed expectations and an IT outage grounded its flights across the US
A bad news twofer is driving Alaska Airlines lower in premarket trading Friday, following the airline’s Q3 earnings report after the close on Thursday.
Alaska Air posted adjusted diluted earnings of $1.05 per share, below Wall Street’s expectation of $1.09.
Last month, ALK warned that elevated fuel costs and factors like weather and air traffic control issues would put its results toward the lower end of its EPS guidance. At the time, analysts had been expecting the carrier to post earnings of $1.35 per share. In its report, Alaska Air posted $3.62 billion in operating expenses, up 32% from last year.
The airline did beat on revenue, reporting $3.77 billion in sales in the quarter, representing a 23% jump from the same period last year.
Adding to negative sentiment around the stock was a tech outage that grounded Alaska’s flights across the US for several hours on Thursday, leading to 229 cancellations. The outage forced the airline to postpone its earnings call.
