American Airlines adds to industry woes with Q2 revenue and profit drop

American Airlines was the latest bad luck story of the airline industry as it reported a drop in its revenue and profits for the second quarter.

The US's biggest airline saw revenue from April to June fall 4.3% to $10.4bn from the same period last year. Within this, passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM), a closely-watched sales metric in the airline industry, was down 6.3 per cent compared to the second quarter of last year.

“Second quarter 2016 revenue was hurt by competitive capacity growth, continued global macroeconomic softness and foreign currency weakness,” the company said.

The performance adds another kick to the industry which is already wallowing in pity with a huge drop off in bookings caused by the global terror concern after attacks on airports in European hotspots.

Shares in American have fell more than 17% this year.