DALLAS (AP) – Passenger revenue has almost tripled and Southwest Airlines posted a smaller loss than most expected, although air traffic slowed in the third quarter with the spread of the Delta variant.
Net income was $ 446 million, or 73 cents per share, recovering from a loss for the same period last year. There were one-time costs that resulted in a 23 cents per share loss, but that’s not as bad as the 27 cents per share loss Wall Street expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.
“The third quarter of 2021 was an operational challenge for us,” said CEO and Chairman Gary Kelly in a prepared statement. “Despite the slowdown in traffic in August and September due to increasing COVID-19 cases, the demand and sales development in the third quarter of 2021 was quite strong and has improved dramatically compared to the previous year. That was a bright and encouraging sign of recovery. “
Sales were $ 4.68 billion, also better than expected.
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Part of this story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks share report on LUV at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LUV
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