American Airlines climbs as its third-quarter loss comes in smaller than expected

American Airlines shares rose more than 3% in premarket trading on Thursday after the last of the big four carriers reported its third-quarter earnings.

American Airlines reported a loss of $0.17 per diluted share, beating analyst expectations of a $0.28 loss per share and improving on the same period last year. The figure came in on the lower end of American’s guidance for a loss between $0.10 and $0.60 per share for the third quarter.

The airline’s revenue came in essentially flat from last year at $13.69 billion, beating the estimate from analysts polled by FactSet of $13.6 billion. Passenger revenue was $12.5 billion, above Wall Street’s expectations.

For its fourth quarter, American is forecasting earnings of between $0.45 and $0.75 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $0.30 per share. The carrier now expects full-year 2025 earnings per share of between $0.65 and $0.95, again ahead of analysts’ expectations ($0.42).

The improved outlook is still significantly below American’s forecast from earlier in the year, when the airline issued annual profit guidance of between $1.70 and $2.70 per share.

As of Wednesday’s close, American Airline shares had fallen about 31% on the year. Rival Delta Air Lines is down less than 1% in the same time, while the S&P 500 has gained about 14%.