(Bloomberg) -- Southwest AirlinesCo. said third-quarter sales will take a $100 million blow fromthis year’s devastating hurricanes and earthquakes.
|About 5,000 flights had been canceled through Wednesday becauseof the natural disasters, the carrier said in a statement Thursday.Southwest also pared its outlook for revenue from each seat flown amile, saying the benchmark gauge would be little changed in thethird quarter even in a best-case scenario. Previously, it said thefigure would potentially increase “slightly.”
|Related: Business continuity plans & technology helpbusinesses weather Hurricane Harvey
|Natural disaster compounding other problems
The natural disasters are compounding other problems that haveweakened the financial outlook at U.S. airlines recently, includingfare battles, higher fuel costs and feeble demand for pricey,last-minute tickets. Delta Air Lines Inc., United ContinentalHoldings Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. all lowered theirrevenue estimates earlier this month.
Southwest said costs for each available seat flown a mile willincrease 3% to 4% in the current quarter from a year earlier.Previously, the Dallas-based carrier had projected that costs wouldrise no more than 3%.
|The shares rose less than 1% at 9:54 a.m. in New York. Southwestadvanced 12% through Wednesday, the biggest gain on a Standard& Poor’s index of the five biggest U.S. airlines.
|Puerto Rico flights still limited
Flights to Puerto Rico are still limited after the island wasbattered by Hurricane Maria. Earlier this month, Hurricane Irmapounded Florida and the Caribbean, while two earthquakes in Mexico took more than 400lives.
United suspended operations at its Houston hub for four daysearlier in the quarter and scrubbed more than 7,400 flights becauseof Hurricane Harvey, the company disclosed earlier this month.
|Related:
|What businesses can learn from Harvey and Irmabefore the next hurricane
|Irma and Maria leave awake of heartbreakand devastation
|United Air seen suffering $265 million blowfrom Houston storm
|Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.
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