Regardless of the looming considerations of a recession, individuals nonetheless wish to spend on journey.

That was the large takeaway from the U.S. airline trade’s fourth-quarter earnings season, the place the final of the nation’s large carriers reported their outcomes this previous week.

American Airlines was the most recent to say it’s been incomes document income as demand has continued to soar for the reason that depth of the pandemic. This development appears to indicate little signal of slowing — for now.

The newest outcomes got here on Thursday as 4 large airways reported earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022.

American raked in a web revenue of $803 million, handily topping Wall Road expectations Thursday by saying it earned document income through the fourth quarter. The Fort Value-based provider stated it earned 16.6% extra through the quarter than in the identical one in 2019, regardless of flying at 6.1% much less capability.

“That is our greatest ever post-holiday reserving interval with broad power throughout all entities and journey durations,” American Airways CEO Robert Isom stated on the corporate’s quarterly monetary outcomes name. “Demand for home and short-haul worldwide journey continues to prepared the ground. We anticipate a robust demand surroundings to proceed in 2023 and anticipate additional enhancements in demand for lengthy haul worldwide journey this 12 months.”

American’s fourth-quarter end result mirrored that of opponents, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, which every additionally reported document income and promising 2023 forecasts.

The opposite main Dallas-Fort Value space provider, Southwest Airlines, didn’t have such rosy earnings.

Southwest stated it anticipated demand to select again up after its vacation meltdown. Nonetheless, the airline reported a fourth-quarter lack of $220 million. A lot of the provider’s earnings name centered across the cataclysmic meltdown that occurred round Christmas and bled into the New 12 months. Executives repeatedly apologized for the operational failure.

“In the beginning, I wish to apologize once more to our clients and our workers for the affect the operational disruption had on them and on their vacation plans,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan stated on the decision. “We’re intensely targeted on lowering the chance of repeating that kind of operational occasion once more.”

The episode, which triggered the airline to cancel practically 17,000 flights, price it roughly $390 million in working bills. Most of these bills went towards reimbursing clients, based on Southwest CFO Tammy Romo. Jordan stated the airline is near finishing roughly 95% of these reimbursement requests.

The Division of Transportation also launched an investigation into the Southwest meltdown to see whether or not the airline’s schedule was unrealistic. Southwest stated that it’s cooperating with the DOT within the investigation.

Jordan added that 25% of shoppers who obtained 25,000 Fast Rewards factors as a result of fiasco have already booked future journey with the airline. Some used factors and others booked with money.

“I take that as an indication of confidence that clients perceive that we tousled there,” Jordan stated on the decision. “We did all the things that we might to make it proper.”

Nonetheless, Southwest remains to be reeling from its vacation mess as executives stated bookings have softened in January. Southwest CCO Ryan Inexperienced stated the slowdown in bookings was simply remoted to January and the primary half of February, as a part of a “hangover” impact from the incident.

Alaska Airways and JetBlue — the 2 different large airways to report quarterly earnings on Thursday — additionally stated demand developments for 2023 had been promising. Each corporations bested analysts’ forecasts.

Strong demand from leisure vacationers appears to drive the development. Put up-pandemic, leisure journey has returned a lot faster than enterprise journey.

“Trying additional forward, we’re excited to proceed constructing on final 12 months’s document efficiency as we anticipate one other sturdy 12 months of income progress forward of us, underpinned by strong leisure demand and a number of community and business initiatives,” shared JetBlue COO Joanna Geraghty.

The general public’s continued urge for food for journey has been good for airways. It is prone to spur larger fares as vacationers maintain reserving flights.

That’s to not say there aren’t some darkish clouds on the horizon for the trade.

A pilot shortage has squeezed the trade — particularly at regional carriers, which have responded by mountaineering pay and labor prices. Provide chain points have slowed the supply of all the things from new airplanes to spare elements.

Additionally, renewed considerations over outdated aviation infrastructure as a result of current Federal Aviation Administration system meltdown have some airways cautious of much more disruptions.

United CEO Scott Kirby made headlines final week for saying it’s troublesome for airways to function prefer it’s 2019, given the strains which have bothered the trade for the reason that pandemic.

Many airways have solely lately returned to satisfactory staffing ranges after many workers retired or took buyouts through the pandemic. There have been months of hypothesis amongst monetary forecasters about the opportunity of a U.S. recession — one thing that would derail the trade’s restoration.

For now, although, airways stay comparatively optimistic about 2023.

“We overcame many challenges collectively all through this previous 12 months, and we made large progress in restoring the enterprise popping out of the pandemic,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes stated. “And we’re set as much as additional construct on that success right here in 2023, with a disciplined plan to proceed strengthening our foundations, each operationally and financially.”