Passenger revenue soars at Southwest despite hit from virus
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The Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — Passenger revenue almost tripled and Southwest Airlines posted a smaller loss that most had expected in the third quarter despite the spread of the delta variant that slowed air travel again. Net income was $446 million, or 73 cents per share, bouncing back from a loss over the same period last year. There were one-time costs that drove a per-share loss of 23 cents, but that’s not as bad as the per-share loss of 27 cents that Wall Street was expecting. CEO Gary Kelly said it was a challenging quarter and COVID-19 quashed travel in August and September, but overall all there were encouraging signs that point to recovery.