American Airlines climbs as travel rebound brightens outlook

American Airlines Group jumped after signaling that a US travel industry rebound is bolstering its financial results more quickly than expected. Cash generation averaged about $1m a day during Q2, a first for the carrier since the start of the pandemic when it was burning about $100m daily, American said late Tuesday. Sales will be down about 38% from the level two years earlier, compared with the previous prediction of a 40% drop, according to a regulatory filing. “We are clearly moving in the right direction,” CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said in a message to employees. “Our revenue and expense performance in the quarter came in better than expectations, and this was achieved while bringing the operation back up to full capacity and safely transporting a record number of travelers.” American also said it would post a “slight” pretax profit when it reports earnings next week. That comes with a big asterisk since results will be buoyed by about $1.4b from the federal airline bailout. But American’s outlook and a Wednesday earnings report from Delta showed that US air travel is roaring back thanks to vaccination campaigns, lighter government restrictions and pent-up consumer demand. “Domestic leisure traffic has fully recovered, and there are green shoots for business and international,” Conor Cunningham, an analyst with MKM Partners, said in a note to clients after Delta’s report.<br/>