American Airlines Reports $54 Billion In Revenue For 2024

By Rytis Beresnevicius - Journalist | Simple Flying

American Airlines ended 2024 with revenues of $54.2 billion, coming up short of its main competition, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, with the carrier still closing the year profitably.

Capacity adjustments and demand strength

On January 23, American Airlines announced its Q4 and full-year results for 2024, with the airline ending the latter period with revenues of $54.2 billion. Speaking about the revenue environment during the last quarter of the year ($13.6 billion revenue in Q4 2024) and 2024, American Airlines said the metrics were record-breaking.

“This revenue performance was driven by the actions the airline took to adjust capacity, combined with continued demand strength.”

In comparison, American Airlines’ Q4 2023 and 2023 revenues were $13 billion and $52.7 billion, respectively, resulting in low single-digit growth in both metrics year-on-year (YoY).

Still, the airline praised its employees for continuing to deliver strong operational results despite extreme weather and other challenges the company faced during the quarter and in 2024. In Q4, it was second in completion factor and on-time departures among the four largest carriers, which, in addition to Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, includes Southwest Airlines .

“For the year, American achieved its second-best completion factor since the merger of American and US Airways, on its largest volume of passengers ever. The team continues to demonstrate its operational resilience and ability to recover from disruptions.”

Well-positioned to tackle 2025

Robert Isom, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of American Airlines, added that the carrier’s employees achieved several important objectives in 2024, with the executive reiterating its reliable operation as it continues to reengineer the business to build an even more efficient airline.

“As we look ahead to this year, American remains well-positioned because of the strength of our network, loyalty and co-branded credit card programs, fleet and operational reliability, and the tremendous work of our team.”

American Airlines and Citi announced their ten-year agreement in early December 2024, with the bank becoming the exclusive issuer of the AAdvantage (the carrier’s loyalty program) co-branded credit card portfolio in the US starting in 2026.

The partnership should drive incremental value for both companies, resulting in an expanded loyalty and rewards ecosystem for AAdvantage and Citi-branded card members. Cash remuneration from co-branded credit cards and other partners was $6.1 billion in 2024, American Airlines highlighted (does not include proceeds from the Citi deal).

Almost 249 million passengers

American Airlines shared that in 2024, it carried 248.7 million passengers, an increase of 7.3%, as its capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASM), grew by 5.5% YoY. The average load factors increased from 83.5% to 84.9%.

Its annual operating expenses increased slightly (3.7%). However, even the lower fuel prices, with the airline spending 6.8% less on fuel YoY, could not help the company improve its operating income, which decreased by 13.9% to $2.6 billion. Some of the highest cost drivers were salaries (up 9.9% YoY) and maintenance-related costs that increased by 16.2% to $16 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively.

American Airlines ended the year with a $846 million net profit. In comparison, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines ended the year with net incomes of $3.9 billion (adjusted) and $3.1 billion, respectively. Alaska Airlines, which acquired Hawaiian Airlines in September 2024, ended the year with a net profit of $395 million.