Dec 5 (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines cut its 2025 forecast for key profit metric EBIT on Friday, citing lower revenue due to the recent government shutdown and the impact from higher fuel prices.
The company said it now expects its full-year earnings before interest and taxes to be about $500 million, compared with its previous forecast of $600 million to $800 million.
Shares of the company were down 2.3% in premarket trading.
A 43-day government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, disrupted flight operations nationwide, forcing thousands of air traffic controllers and other aviation staff to work without pay. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered flight reductions at 40 major airports because of staffing shortages.
The combined impact of the shutdown and severe winter weather has prompted some Wall Street analysts to cut fourth-quarter profit estimates for U.S. airlines by up to 30%.
JetBlue on Tuesday said that its operational performance was also impacted by shutdown-related cancellations and Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica. It expects a one point reduction to available seat mile (ASM) growth in the fourth quarter. Non-fuel unit costs were also impacted.
Earlier this week, Delta Air Lines said it expects a hit of about $200 million to its fourth-quarter pre-tax profit due to the shutdown.
(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru and Doyinsola Oladipo;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
