American Airlines has just reported its Q3 2026 results, and the results are pretty rough. What’s worse is the full year guidance for the airline, as the airline now expects to have a significant loss for the year.
While higher fuel prices have of course been a challenge for airlines, Delta, Southwest, and United, all still plan to make healthy profits this year. Unfortunately American is now joining the list of money-losing airlines in the United States…
American expects significant full year loss in 2026
The trends we’ve seen broadly in the US airline industry have been pretty consistent. Demand has remained strong, and airlines have been able to raise fares, but not quite enough to offset the massive increases we’ve seen in fuel bills.
For Q3 2026, American lost $269 million. That’s obviously not good, but American has gotten to the point where Q3 is regularly a money loser, as the company lost $114 million during the same period last year.
Of course the airline also highlights the positives — American had record revenue for the quarter of $16.3 billion, up 19.3% year-over-year, above the high end of the previously announced guidance. The airline also highlights how it delivered the best unit cost performance among the network carriers.
The roughest detail in all of this is American’s updated guidance for 2026:
- American’s initial guidance for 2026 was to have earnings per share of $1.70 to $2.70
- After Q1 earnings, the airline updated guidance to have earnings per share of -$0.40 to $1.10
- After Q2 earnings, the airline updated guidance to have earnings per share of -$0.65 to $0.65
- After Q3 earnings, the airline has updated guidance to have earnings per share of -$1.60 to -$1.00
That’s a huge change in guidance. Just for context on American’s results for the first three quarters of 2026, the airline had a net loss of $382 million in the first quarter, a net profit of $71 million in the second quarter, and a net loss of $269 million in the third quarter. That means so far this year, American has lost $581 million, and the expectation is that we’ll see another loss in the fourth quarter.
American CEO Robert Isom of course spins these results as a positive, while talking about the four pillars of the commercial strategy, and the focus on restoring profitability:
“American delivered record third-quarter revenue and the strongest year-over-year revenue growth in my career, with premium performance leading the way. The investments we are making across the four pillars of our commercial strategy are working, and we expect another quarter of record revenue growth to close out the year. While historically high fuel prices significantly impacted our financial results, our focus remains on restoring profitability and building a stronger American for the long term. I’m grateful to the American Airlines team for making this progress possible.”
American’s four pillars are to elevate the customer experience, grow the global network, drive premium revenue, and lead in loyalty.
How much trouble is American in at this point?
I know I’m a broken record, but of course I can’t help but always be reminded of how former American CEO Doug Parker in 2017 claimed that American would never lose money again, and that even in a bad year, the airline would achieve around $3 billion in profits. It’s a wild comment from someone who led an airline through 9/11, and of course American ended up losing money in 2020, 2021, and now will lose money again in 2026.
When it comes to the current state of things, I guess there are two ways to look at it. One way to view things is that if oil prices do come down, airlines might be able to retain some of the increased pricing power they’ve achieved this year, and could report very impressive profits. I mean, American has paid around $4.4 billion extra in fuel in the first nine months of the year.
The other way to look at things is that obviously American has really gotten itself into a pickle. The airline is now trying to make a premium transformation, and that includes billions of dollars in investments. Talk about an absolutely horrible time to be in this position, when your competitors are reporting healthy profits while you’re losing money, especially when it’ll likely take years before these investments result in materially better financial performance.
I don’t understand how American’s board can continue to be so checked out that they let Robert Isom keep his job. At least get rid of him and let Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper run the show, because clearly he cares about the future of the airline, and has a vision.
Bottom line
American Airlines has reported its Q3 2026 results, and the airline lost $269 million, while competitors announced very healthy profits. Even worse, American’s full-year forecast is now that there will be a significant loss, so the focus is shifting to restoring profitability.
This all comes at a time when American is trying to positively transform itself, by investing billions in the passenger experience. What an all-around rough situation to be in.
What do you make of American’s Q3 2026 financial results and updated guidance?
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