Airlines Report Bookings Drop Amid Macroeconomic Uncertainty

A day after Delta Air Lines cut its guidance, citing lower U.S. consumer confidence, three more airlines made similar comments about the current macroeconomic environment.

In presentations made Tuesday (March 11) at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines revised their outlooks downward or said they expect earnings to come in at the lower end of their guidance.

American Airlines updated its first-quarter guidance to call for its first-quarter revenue to be flat compared to a year earlier, rather than seeing a gain of 3% to 5% as it had previously forecast, according to a presentation issued Tuesday.

The company attributed the change to wildfires, Sunbelt weather, the Flight 5342 crash, softness in the domestic leisure segment and “increasing macroeconomic uncertainty.”

Southwest Airlines said in a Tuesday presentation that it expects its RASM — a measure of operating revenue production based on available…