This Underrated Airline Just Posted Another Profit
The U.S. airline industry's recovery from its pandemic-induced downturn has accelerated in a big way over the past several months. Nevertheless, most major airlines continued to lose money in the second quarter.
Regional airlines that get much of their revenue from fixed-fee contracts have fared better than the rest of the industry, though. Indeed, SkyWest (NASDAQ: SKYW) returned to profitability in the first quarter, when most airlines were still reporting massive losses. Not surprisingly, the top regional airline's earnings improved again last quarter.
In the second quarter, SkyWest's flight activity increased 17% sequentially and 157% year over year to 324,045 block hours. This put block hours just 13% below the level of Q2 2019. As a result, SkyWest generated $657 million of revenue: up 88% year over year and down just 12% from the second quarter of 2019. This easily beat the average analyst estimate of $600 million.
Source Fool.com
