American canceled 34,000 flights in the first quarter

American Airlines said it canceled more than 34,000 flights in the first quarter as several winter storms swept across the United States earlier this year. The storms will reduce first quarter revenue by $115 million while profits will also be $60 million lower because of the storms.

The Fort Worth-based carrier said its passenger traffic in March grew 0.9 percent as the carrier increased capacity by 2.9 percent.

Load factor for its flights dropped 1.6 percentage points to 81.8 percent in March when compared to March 2013. The traffic figures include US Airways operations as the two airlines merged in December.

American said it expects operating margins to be about 5 to 7 percent and unit revenues up 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

Read more here: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/sky_talk/2014/04/american-canceled-34000-flights-in-the-first-quarter.html#storylink=cpy