Alaska's Results, impresive.

[700UW]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/alaska-air-group-reports-record-120000482.html
 
Financial Highlights:

• Reported record second quarter net income, excluding special items, of $157 million - a 50% increase over the second quarter of 2013.
• Reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.13 per diluted share, a 53% increase over the second quarter of 2013 and ahead of First Call analyst consensus estimate of $1.11 per share.
• Earned net income for the second quarter under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) of $165 million or $1.19 per diluted share, compared to net income of $104 million, or $0.74 per diluted share in 2013.
• Recorded $54 million of incentive pay through the first six months of 2014. This includes each Air Group employee earning at least $550 by meeting or exceeding monthly customer satisfaction and operational performance goals and tracking to earn above-target payouts for full-year goals.
• Grew operating revenues by 9%.
• Generated record adjusted pretax margin in the second quarter of 18.3% compared to 13.5% in 2013.
• Generated 14.9% pretax margin for the trailing 12-month period ended June 30, 2014, compared to 11.8% for the same period in the prior year.
• Ranked in the Fortune 500 for the first time in Air Group's history.
• Achieved trailing 12-month return on invested capital of 16.1% compared to 13.0% in the 12-month period ended June 30, 2013.
• Rated BBB- by Fitch Ratings.  Air Group is one of only two U.S. airlines with investment grade credit ratings.
• Declared a 2-for-1 stock split that was effective July 9, 2014. All stock and per-share figures reflect the split retroactively.
• Announced an additional $650 million repurchase program, representing approximately 10% of our stock market capitalization at the time of announcement.
• Repurchased 1,108,334 shares of common stock for $53 million in the second quarter of 2014.
• Paid a $0.125 per-share quarterly cash dividend on June 10, bringing total dividend payments so far this year to $34 million.
• Lowered adjusted debt-to-total-capitalization ratio to 32%.
• Produced operating cash flows of $1 billion and free cash flows of $366 million for the 12-month period ended June 30, 2014.
• Held $1.5 billion in unrestricted cash and marketable securities as of June 30, 2014.
• Maintained fully funded pension plans and had no net debt.

 

[WorldTraveler]

good work by AS.

since much of DL's new domestic markets just started in June and DL itself said its domestic SEA RASM grew by 6% despite the new capacity, the chances are very high that AS and DL can coexist with hubs at SEA despite AS' execs statements that there was too much capacity in the market.


I haven't read the transcript from AS' earnings call but there were many questions in the last quarter regarding DL's ramp up. Hopefully, those questions have been laid to rest.

Of course this is peak season, DL is upgrading more markets like SAN, LAS, and others to at least some mainline flights but the market is strong and AS and DL do connect enough passengers at SEA to keep the local market from being harmed too much.

AS and DL will likely coexist with each being successful with little need for either to resort to major alternate strategic alternatives.

It probably also explains while SEA airport will do all possible to accommodate both carriers' growth plans.

AS is a great airline and will likely continue to be, just with a larger competitive hub in their hometown.

 

[Kev3188]

Nice work by the Eskimo!

 

[737823]

The COPS and 600 ramp employees will enjoy the IAM negotiated profit sharing.
 
Josh

 

[WorldTraveler]

here is the transcript of ALK's earnings call.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2340625-alaska-air-groups-alk-ceo-bradley-tilden-on-q2-2014-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

there are still plenty of questions related to AS-DL but also interesting comments about the increased minimum wage in Seattle, other competitors, and their stock buy back among other topics.

 

[700UW]

More good results from AS.
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/alaska-air-group-reports-july-120000605.html

 

[WorldTraveler]

it is the same type of traffic report they have issued for months... they do a good job of filling the seats they put into the market. It doesn't say anything about yield or revenue per seat.

they did just announce a fall fare sale; don't know if they have done that at this point in the past but the increased capacity in the market will be much more of an issue as the peak summer season ends.