Southwest Airlines confident it can return to positive unit revenue growth
Southwest Airlines' disclosure Wednesday that it expects unit revenue to decline 4% to 5% year-over-year in Q4 and its unit cost excluding fuel to rise by a similar range in the same period pounded the discounter’s share price, slicing off US$2.2b in market capitalisation. But executives at the carrier said they were confident they could reach revenue targets next year despite a raft of capacity increases by rival airlines on Southwest routes. CE Gary Kelly said the carrier could break into flat or positive unit revenue in the Q1 even on planned seat growth shy of 3% in the period. For all of 2017, Southwest expects to grow 3.5% to 4%, much more than some of its largest competitors. But Kelly said he believed that is the right amount, after a capacity boost of 5% to 6% this year. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2016-10-27/unaligned/southwest-airlines-confident-it-can-return-to-positive-unit-revenue-growth
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Southwest Airlines confident it can return to positive unit revenue growth
Southwest Airlines' disclosure Wednesday that it expects unit revenue to decline 4% to 5% year-over-year in Q4 and its unit cost excluding fuel to rise by a similar range in the same period pounded the discounter’s share price, slicing off US$2.2b in market capitalisation. But executives at the carrier said they were confident they could reach revenue targets next year despite a raft of capacity increases by rival airlines on Southwest routes. CE Gary Kelly said the carrier could break into flat or positive unit revenue in the Q1 even on planned seat growth shy of 3% in the period. For all of 2017, Southwest expects to grow 3.5% to 4%, much more than some of its largest competitors. But Kelly said he believed that is the right amount, after a capacity boost of 5% to 6% this year. <br/>
