American Airlines Captures Some Margin in the Postpandemic Travel Wave

Before the coronavirus pandemic, much of American Airlines’ story was based on realizing cost efficiencies from its 2013 merger with US Airways and strengthening its hubs to expand margins. While we observed a bump in operating margin to 15.1% in 2015, when the merger was financially consolidated and fuel prices dropped, American saw steady unit cost growth through 2019, when it delivered a 6.7% operating margin. While we expect American can achieve some operating cost improvement in the coming years, we do not expect it to structurally improve its relative position among airlines.