American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Vernon: Okay. And then maybe just as a quick follow up. As you think about some of the rationalization of the negative margin or lower margin capacity that’s being contemplated out in the industry, how should we be thinking about the impact of, let’s say, an unbundled operator pulling in capacity on your fare ladder? Is that sort of uniform impact up and down the different fare classes or is it more concentrated in something like a basic product? Anything you could tell us for, help us to understand how some of the capacity changes in the market might impact American would be really helpful.

Vasu Raja: Well, look, at large, and I think Robert mentioned it earlier, if there is — like all businesses, supply, demand driven businesses and if there’s less supply, that’s going to have a clear impact on demand. But for us, with things like basic, in fact, for all of our fare products, we do not make products that are so odious no one will buy it. The whole point of them is to actually have customers experience, travel and join AAdvantage. And for us, basic economy is not about a competitive product. It’s our entry level product that gets customers in the door and signed up for AAdvantage.

Robert Isom: Hey, David. I just want to add one other thing here, which is, this is that we’ve built technology to enable us to react to whatever may come our way. So as Vasu has said that, look, our goal is to make sure that we can deliver a product to the customers the way they want to receive it. It also has to be done in a way that is incredibly nimble and can be changed. And in the past you may have seen carriers, even American unable to react very quickly. That’s not the case right now. So whatever happens in the marketplace, we’ve got the technology, we’ve got the product to be super competitive and whether it’s us developing it on our own or having to compete, we’ll be ready.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Conor Cunningham of Melius Research. Please go ahead, Conor. Again, Conor, please make sure your line isn’t muted. If you’re on a speakerphone, lift your handset. We’ll go to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ravi Shanker of Morgan Stanley. Your question, please, Ravi?

Katherine Kallergis: Good morning, everyone. This is Katherine on for Ravi. So, thank you for taking my question. My question is really around the Investor Day in a few weeks, which I know is probably the first one you guys have hosted in about seven years. And I was just curious what investors can expect to hear during the event, whether it’s new financial long-term targets, revenue initiatives, just any color around the event would be great.

Robert Isom: Hey, Katherine. Thanks. No, we’re excited about the Investor Day. And look, we’ve worked really hard to put the focus of the company on doing the fundamentals really well. You know that we’ve talked about returning the company to reliability, profitability, strengthening our balance sheet by paying down debt. We’re in a really great spot now to talk about what’s next. And on that horizon, we’re going to be talking about the benefits of all the work that we’ve done on our fleet, everything we’ve done with our network and partnerships. Vasu’s mentioned a number of times, even today, the potential within our loyalty program. We’re going to talk about even doing better in terms of what we deliver to our customers. And ultimately, we want to talk a lot about how we can do that all a lot more efficiently.

One of the things you’ll see is that in Americans, look, it’s a changed airline. We have a focus on producing free cash flow and ultimately, rewarding our shareholders. So can’t wait to tell you more about all of that.

Katherine Kallergis: And just as a quick follow-up, I know it’s probably too early, but I was curious if you had seen any share shift in January just due to the issue with the MAX grounding with other carriers. I wasn’t sure if you had seen anything in the data.

Robert Isom: No, Vasu can add some color to that. Look, January isn’t — it’s been a strong month for us, but it’s never the busiest months of the year. And so we’ll fly load factors in the 70s. It’s probably similar for the rest of the industry. And while I’m sure that there is benefit, I know that there is, it’s not material when you think about the number of seats that are opened for all carriers and the overall size of the American Airlines business.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth of Evercore ISI. Your question, please, Duane?

Duane Pfennigwerth: Hey. Good morning. Thank you. Maybe start with Vasu. Can you speak to advanced bookings beyond 1Q here? Just curious, we had this real surge this time last year. Maybe you could just comment on what the booking curve looks like, if it’s shorter, if it’s lengthening, and if you have any commentary on domestic versus international book yields as you look a little further out into peak periods.?

Vasu Raja: Yeah. Hey, thanks for the question. Look, the booking curve is largely flat to last year. There is a moderate shift. Let’s call it 2 points from outside of the inside 30 day range to the outside 30 day range. What I would say is, right now, we’re intaking revenues in line with capacity and entity by entity, market by market. Sometimes it’s yield, sometimes it’s traffic. But as long as that’s continuing, we’re encouraged. Right now, in the summer, really the most impactful thing that we see is long haul. And we’re seeing long haul book up on a revenue basis at the same rates as we saw last year, which is a particularly strong year and we’re just too early in the domestic and short haul curve to really see that yet. But we’re encouraged by what we see even as we start selling more March and the post Easter period too.

Duane Pfennigwerth: Thanks. You actually said more than I thought you would. Just to follow up there on the long haul, any commentary on booked yields? Are we holding serve or are we going backwards a bit?

Vasu Raja: Yes. So far we’re holding serve, and it’s still a long way to go, though.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Diadora, Bank of America. Please go ahead, Andrew.