Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. AAL,
shot 54.5% to an 11-month high in premarket trading on Thursday, after the airline reported a smaller-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter and sales and load factor that exceeded expectations. The company surged to a net loss of $ 2.18 billion, or $ 3.81 per share, from net income of $ 414 million, or 95 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding one-time items, adjusted loss per share was $ 3.86, exceeding FactSet’s loss consensus of $ 4.11. Revenue fell 64% to $ 4.03 billion, but surpassed the FactSet consensus of $ 3.88 billion. Occupancy fell from 84.7% to 63.4%, above the FactSet consensus of 62.9% as traffic fell 66.7% while capacity dropped 55.4%. The daily cash burn rate for the quarter was $ 30 million, compared to nearly $ 100 million in April. The company expects to close the first quarter with $ 15.0 billion in total available liquidity. “Looking to the year ahead, 2021 will be a year of recovery,” said Chief Executive Doug Parker. “While we don’t know exactly when passenger demand will return, we will be ready as vaccine distribution gets stuck and travel restrictions lifted.” The stock is up 51.2% in the past three months to Wednesday, while the US Global Jets ETF JETS,
Up 29.5% and the S&P 500 SPX,
has gained 14.7%.