Alaska Airlines Reports Strong Q2 Profit

It’s not good enough to just make a profit. You have to beat Wall Street expectations, too.

Such was the case for Alaska Airlines when it reported second quarter earnings today, July 25. Alaska Air Group said it had a $240 million profit in the second quarter. But it tanked on Wall Street. Here’s why.

Although the $240 million was 75 percent greater than it was in the same quarter last year, it was 30 percent below Wall Street expectations. That resulted in a precipitous drop of more than 12 percent of its stock in early trading this morning.

Alaska Air Group made 7 percent more than the $2.8 billion in revenue that it did in the same quarter last year, and it carried five percent more passengers.

“People are hungry to travel,” Alaska Air CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.

Any profit is a good profit, but apparently it wasn’t good enough for Wall Street. Alaska Airlines will try again when it publishes third quarter results in October.