Alaska Air Group reports $147 million third-quarter loss

Fuel headwind offsets 14% revenue growth as adjusted earnings miss estimates

Alaska Air Group reported a third-quarter loss of $147 million, or $1.32 a share, on Tuesday, reversing a year-earlier profit of $73 million, or 62 cents a share.

Alaska Air Group reported adjusted earnings of 36 cents a share after excluding certain one-time items and tax impacts. Analysts polled by FactSet expected 39 cents a share.

Quarterly revenue rose 14% to nearly $4.31 billion, just shy of analyst expectations. The airline reported 2.4% capacity growth and nearly 12% growth in revenue per available seat mile during the quarter.

Alaska Air Group said higher-than-expected fuel headwinds more than offset double-digit revenue growth. Economic fuel cost per gallon reached $3.94 during the quarter, ahead of the airline’s $3.75 expectation.

“While we’re not satisfied with this quarter’s result or the $1.8 billion fuel headwind this year, we are confident in our ability to execute on the things we can control, including increasing the spread between unit revenue and unit costs excluding fuel,” Chief Executive Ben Minicucci said.

A separate market-data entry in the report listed Alaska Air Group, identified by ticker ALK, up 1.12%. Separately, Alaska Air Group shares fell 1.6% to $33.80 in after-hours trading Tuesday.

For the current fourth quarter, Alaska Air Group expects an adjusted loss of $2.00 to $2.50 per share. The company’s forecast range was wider than the $1.19 adjusted loss analysts expected.

Alaska Air Group anticipates a 1% to 1.5% increase in capacity and low double-digit growth in revenue per available seat mile for the fourth quarter. The company also forecasts economic fuel costs of $4.65 to $4.85 per gallon, above the $3.94 it recorded in the third quarter.