American Airlines has just reported its year end financials for 2025 and boy were things rough for the Fort Worth based carrier. Delta led the pack among the “Big 3” with United taking second place, and American coming in a very distant third.
American Reports 87% Decline in Profits from 2024 to 2025
For 2025, American reported a net income of $111 million, this is down from $846 million the year before. By comparison, Delta reported a net income of $5 billion and United reported a net income of $3.4 billion.
American has the highest costs of the Big 3 and, when things take a downward turn, American is in the most precarious position. The economic uncertainty we saw in 2025 certainly didn’t help the airline’s bottom line, especially when they are playing with such small margins.
While I’m skeptical of whether American can get to the level of profitability we’re seeing at Delta and United, American CEO Robert Isom said this about the carrier’s financial situation:
“American Airlines is positioned for significant upside in 2026 and beyond. We have built a strong foundation, and we look forward to taking advantage of the investments we have made in our customer experience, network, fleet, partnerships and loyalty program. The strategy we have in place will put American in the right position as we celebrate our centennial and embark on our next 100 years as a premium global airline.”
For 2025, American had $0.17 in earnings per share but the airline is projecting that it will have between $1.70-1.80 in earnings per share for 2026. American is banking on recent partnerships and a pivot towards more premium product offerings to bolster revenue in 2026.
It’s worth noting that just a few years ago former CEO Doug Parker proclaimed that the airline will never lose money again. Stating that, even in a bad year, it should earn roughly $3 billion in pre-tax profit. Well, 2025 was far from a bad year, and the airline made just over $100 million, a drop in the bucket for one of the world’s largest airlines.
American Employees Earn Paltry 0.3% Profit Share Bonus
With American’s 2025 financials revealed, we now have an idea of how much its employees will be receiving in profit sharing. Newsflash, don’t get too excited.
According to xJonNYC, American Airlines employees will be receiving roughly 0.3% of their salary for their profit sharing bonus. For an employee making $100,000, they would earn only $300 for the year.
I can’t imagine this is going to go over well with American’s employees. They just saw their colleagues at Delta receive a whopping 8.9% profit sharing bonus ($1.3 billion in total is being distributed to Delta employees) while they’re getting virtually nothing.
If I’m an American Airlines employee, I’ve got to be asking myself “why bother”. As a reference, American CEO Robert Isom earned $15.6 million in 2024 (2025 numbers haven’t been released yet). That works out to roughly 14% of the airline’s total profit for 2025.
American Airlines has had no real direction or corporate strategy for the last few years. We’ve seen them move more downmarket in onboard product (remember the “the schedule is the product” years) before pivoting back towards premium. We’ve seen them contract and then try and expand again in major hubs like Chicago and New York.
All of this has taken a toll on employees and the overall customer experience. I’d imagine, everything else being equal, that a Delta employee is much more likely to go above and beyond than an American employee. This isn’t likely to change until there is a major overhaul of the leadership team at American. I have to wonder if and when that day will ever come.
Summary
American Airlines released its year end financials for 2025 and the numbers are ugly. The carrier posted a net income of $111 million on revenues of $54.6 billion. American employees are expected to receive a paltry 0.3% of their income in profit sharing, placing it well below the other Big 3 U.S. carriers.
One has to wonder what motivates American employees to go to work each day as the carrier clearly lacks a corporate identity and likely needs a leadership overhaul in order to turn things around.