AMR's Q2 Profit Soars on Higher Revenue

Wednesday, July 20th 2005, 9:28 am

By: News On 6

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ AMR Corp., the parent of No. 1 carrier American Airlines, on Wednesday said second-quarter earnings rose sharply to beat Wall Street targets, as increased revenue and cost controls helped the struggling airline post its first operating profit in almost five years.

Shares of AMR jumped on the news, climbing 67 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $14.90 during pre-market trading. The stock, which is nearing a 52-week high of $14.95, is up 37 percent so far this year.

Quarterly income grew to $58 million, or 30 cents per share, from $6 million, or 3 cents per share, in the year-ago period, which included a one-time $31 million gain.

The company's earnings came in at twice the average estimate of 15 cents per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Operating revenue totaled $5.31 billion, a 10 percent increase from $4.83 billion the year before and above analysts' consensus view of $5.14 billion.

For the latest quarter, AMR said traffic rose 7.4 percent to 35.8 billion revenue passenger miles _ defined as one customer flown a mile _ as total capacity advanced 2.3 percent to 45.02 billion available seat miles. Occupancy, or load factor, climbed to 79.5 percent from 75.7 percent a year ago.

AMR added that it spent $1.35 billion on jet fuel in the second quarter, which was $433 million, or 47 percent, more than what the company spent last year.