Earnings Preview: Alaska Air Group

HARRY R. WEBER

ATLANTA (AP) — Alaska Air Group Inc., operator of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reports third-quarter results on Thursday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: The Seattle-based company is expected to post an adjusted profit for the July-September quarter.

Alaska is among a small group of low-fare airlines expected to post profits for the third quarter. It is insulated from the slump in international travel, and its lower fares may have helped it win over U.S. passengers during the recession. It flies to many leisure destinations that are popular in the summer.

Alaska Airlines also has made significant improvement in recent months in its on-time performance.

The parent company's traffic edged slightly higher in September. The company said paying passengers flew 1.45 billion miles in September, up 1.4 percent from last year. Load factor, or the number of seats filled, rose 2.1 points to 77.9 percent.

For the first nine months of the year, traffic was down 4.1 percent to 13.81 billion revenue passenger miles. Load factor rose 1.7 points, to 79.1 percent.