Tale of 2 airlines: Big profit at American, Southwest loss

By DAVID KOENIG and MICHELLE CHAPMAN
AP Business Writers

American Airlines have given more proof of the recovery in air travel, posting a better-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter. But Southwest Airlines lost money because of massive flight cancellations last month. Southwest said it also expects another loss in the first quarter while saying it was encouraged by booking trends for March. Southwest reported a $220 million loss after taking a hit of $800 million from canceling nearly 17,000 flights over the last 10 days of December. The airline had signaled it would lose money, but the adjusted loss of 38 cents per share was worse than the 7 cents per share that Wall Street expected.