American Airlines forecast 2025 profit below Wall Street expectations as the carrier braces for higher costs stemming from expensive labor contracts signed last year, sending its shares down 8% on Thursday. The airline also forecast a bigger first-quarter loss than analysts expected, breaking away from the bumper predictions of rivals such as Delta Air Lines and United Airlines that are benefiting from improved pricing and strong winter demand. "We expect non-fuel unit costs to be up mid-single digits year over year with a large majority of the cost growth coming from higher salaries and benefits," CFO Devon May said during its earnings call. The company in September ratified a new five-year deal with 28,000 of its flight attendants, offering wage increases of up to 20.5% along with retroactive pay. It also signed a two-year contract extension in October with a worker group including aircraft maintenance technicians, cleaners and planners. American spent much of 2024 mending relationships with corporate travelers after a botched sales strategy aimed at cutting back on perks and discounts dented the airline's revenue, hurt its image and gave rivals an edge. Shares of Delta jumped nearly 50% last year while United surged 138%, far above American's gains of about 30%.<br/>
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American Airlines forecasts its fleet of long-haul aircraft will increase from about 125 to 200 jets by the end of the decade. That target figure includes about 40 anticipated Airbus A321XLRs. Fort Worth-based American detailed fleet-growth plans during its 23 December earnings call, with CE Robert Isom suggesting that American’s relatively young aircraft will provide an edge over its network airline competitors as capital expenditures will remain relatively low through 2029. “We already have the lowest average age of our fleet,” he says. “We don’t have retirements coming up. As others have to invest in their fleet… and with the difficulty of aircraft delivery these days, I really like where we’re at.” American does not specify when it expects to take delivery of the first of 50 CFM International Leap-1A turbofan-powered A321XLRs it has on order with Airbus. But both American and JetBlue Airways have previously said they expect to receive their first A321XLRs this year, while United Airlines expects to take its first of the type in January 2026. The variant of the narrowbody A321neo – certificated by both the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration last year – has been marketed by Airbus as an economical solution for long-range flights connecting secondary cities. <br/>
Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has apologised to customers after technical issues disrupted services such as ticketing, online check-in, its mobile app and self-check-in kiosks on Thursday.<br/>Earlier in the day, the airline advised all customers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their flights departed to allow sufficient time to complete check-in formalities. Cathay Pacific confirmed at 3.35pm that services on its website, mobile app and self-check-in kiosks had resumed. The carrier previously said the services had been affected by a “system issue”, adding that airport check-in counters had been unaffected and flight operations remained normal. “We are urgently working with our technical providers to restore these services as soon as possible, and will provide timely updates. In the meantime, our airport services team is providing all necessary help,” Cathay said. “We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused and are grateful for their patience.”<br/>
Cathay Pacific Airways will dish out at least a month’s worth of pay to staff for this year’s bonuses on the back of the Hong Kong flag carrier’s strong financial results in 2024. In a letter to employees on Thursday morning, Cathay Group CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por said the bonus pay was due to the company’s robust performance last year. “I’m pleased to share that we will be distributing at least four weeks of eligible pay this year. Stay tuned,” he wrote. The promised bonus pay follows the company’s successful efforts to rebuild after the pandemic, which saw it return to 100% of pre-Covid flight levels this month. “Our strong financial performance for two years in a row also made it possible for us to commit more than HK$100b [US$12.8b] in investments into further elevating our customers’ experience in the future,” Lam said. CEO Lam said last March the company allowed employees to share its profits, with some entitled to up to 7.2 weeks of eligible pay. In October, the group also announced a one-month discretionary bonus to staff. A spokeswoman of the carrier’s Flight Attendants Union said they welcomed the profit sharing by the company, adding they expected it to hand out more bonuses to staff given the carrier’s completion of its “rebuild journey”.<br/>
Shares of Qantas rose to a record high on Thursday, a day after the Australian carrier unveiled changes to its frequent fliers programme to attract cost-conscious travellers and restore its credibility following a string of controversies. Qantas' stock advanced 0.5% to finish the day at an all-time high of A$9.420. Earlier in the day, shares climbed as much as 1.7% to record levels of A$9.54. The overhaul of the frequent flyer programme, set to roll out in the next 12 months, comes after a challenging couple of years for the flagship carrier, which was marked with controversies like the sale of thousands of tickets on already cancelled flights. This move is seen as a strategy to boost loyalty among members and increase revenue from the programme. It builds on last year's revamp, which included offering access to 20m additional reward seats available for purchase with points. Qantas Loyalty generated roughly A$2.5b ($1.57b) in revenue for fiscal 2024, accounting for around 11% of the airline's total revenue. The programme had 16.4m members, as of June 2024. Under the changes, members will have access to more premium cabin reward seats and partner airlines, lowest economy reward seat fares in Australia, and be able to earn more points when flying, Qantas said in a statement on its website. Jessica Amir, a market strategist at trading platform moomoo, pointed to the trend of holiday travel for Australians around this time of the year and the strength in Qantas' share performance over the last year. "Around this time of the year, we see peak travel and consumer discretion, with many Australians still on holiday until after Australia Day," Amir said.<br/>