American Airlines' Stock Falls After July Load Factor Slips

Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. fell 0.9% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the air carrier said July load factor declined as capacity growth outpaced a traffic increase. The company said traffic for the month rose 0.8% from a year ago to 21.9 billion revenue passenger miles while capacity increased 1.9% to 26.0 billion available seat miles, sending load factor down to 84.3% from 85.2%. The increase in traffic came as growth in Atlantic, Latin America and Pacific regions offset a decline in domestic traffic. The company affirmed its third-quarter outlook for total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) to be up 0.5% to 2.5%. The stock has gained 7.1% year to date through Tuesday, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has eased 0.1% and the S&P 500 has climbed 10.6%.