Southwest revenue jumps 7.2% as demand, MAX cancellations push up fares

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Southwest revenue jumps 7.2% as demand, MAX cancellations push up fares

By Sanjana Shivdas and Tracy Rucinski


By Sanjana Shivdas and Tracy Rucinski

Oct 24 (Reuters)Southwest Airways Co LUV.N reported a 7.2% rise in third-quarter revenue on Thursday, pushed by sturdy journey demand and better fares following flight cancellations because of the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX jets.

Shares rose 1.9% in premarket buying and selling.

Southwest, the world’s largest 737 MAX operator, mentioned it took a $210-million hit to working earnings within the quarter from the continuing MAX security ban, which adopted two lethal crashes on Lion Air and Ethiopian Airways inside 5 months.

With out the MAX, Southwest has fewer seats to promote, pushing up fares when planes are flying close to capability and driving the closely-watched metric of revenues per out there seat mile, or unit revenues.

Unit income grew 4.2% within the quarter ended Sept. 30, with common fares up 1.7%.

Chief Government Officer Gary Kelly mentioned he expects unit…



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