Alaska Air Gr Reports Q2 2026 Results: Full Earnings Call Transcript

Alaska Air Gr (NYSE: ALK ) reported second-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company's second-quarter earnings call has been provided below. This transcript is brought to you APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit for a consultation.

Access the full call at Summary Alaska Air Group reported a second quarter GAAP net loss of $76 million and an adjusted net loss of $102 million, although they beat initial guidance. The company successfully launched its first service to Europe and completed a major technology integration, enhancing operational capabilities. Despite high fuel costs, the company achieved positive earnings in June, indicating a strong underlying business and effective strategic execution. Operational highlights include industry-leading on-time performance and significant improvements in guest satisfaction, aided by investments like Starlink Wi-Fi.

Alaska Air Group is expanding its cargo operations and plans to retire its 717 fleet, transitioning to more efficient aircraft. The company anticipates a strong second half with demand holding firm, and aims to continue building scale and loyalty. Management expressed confidence in the Alaska Accelerate plan, targeting long-term earnings of $10 per share. Full Transcript OPERATOR Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Alaska Air Group 2026 second quarter earnings call.

At this time, all participants have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. com. After our speakers' remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session for analysts. I would now like to turn the call over to Alaska Air Group's Vice President of Finance, Planning and Investor Relations, Ryan St.

Ryan St. John, VP Finance, Planning and Investor Relations Thank you, operator, and good morning. Thanks for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2026 earnings results. com.

On today's call, you'll hear updates from Ben, Andrew, and Shane. Several others of our management team are also on the line to answer your questions. During the Q&A portion of the call, Air Group reported a second quarter GAAP net loss of $76 million. Excluding special items, Air Group reported an adjusted net loss of $102 million.

As a reminder, forward-looking statements about future performance may differ materially from our actual results. Information on risk factors that could affect our business can be found within our SEC filings. We will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted earnings and unit costs excluding fuel, and as usual, we have provided a reconciliation between the most directly comparable GAAP and non-GAAP measures in today's earnings release. Over to you, Ben.

Ben Minicucci, Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Ryan, and good morning everyone. Let me start by directly acknowledging our financial performance. While we beat our initial guidance for the second quarter, we still reported a loss and we're not satisfied with that outcome, especially in what should be one of our strongest quarters of the year. At the same time, it's important to recognize what this quarter represented for our company.

It was one of the most consequential and strategically important quarters in our history. We achieved the most complex technology milestone of our integration, successfully operated the largest summer schedule in our history, and launched our first ever service to Europe, an investment that has exceeded our expectations right out of the gate. While these accomplishments don't change our financial results, they do reinforce our confidence in the future. The work we're doing today is strengthening our foundation, improving our competitiveness, and positioning us to deliver meaningful long-term value.

Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without our people. I want to thank our more than 30,000 employees across Alaska, Hawaiian and Horizon. They delivered these milestones while continuing to provide outstanding care for our guests, and their commitment has been the driving force behind everything we've accomplished this quarter. While there was no way around the overwhelming fuel headwinds, we saw an extremely positive earnings trajectory throughout the quarter.

That only deepens our confidence in our long-term strategy. The momentum we are seeing is clear. Unit revenues strengthened, unit costs improved and we returned to profitability in June with a double-digit pre-tax margin despite fuel prices up nearly 70% year over year. Absent the fuel spike, this would have been a solidly profitable quarter, which underscores that our underlying business is running well and that Alaska Accelerate is working.

With significant commercial momentum, industry-leading operational performance and an integration that's paying off combined with easing fuel prices, disciplined cost execution and demand holding firm here. Operationally, the second quarter was a strong continuation and expansion of the themes I highlighted last call. We led the industry in on-time performance year to date, up 5 points year over year in Q2. At the same time, our team successfully completed the most complex milestone of our integration, migrating to a single passenger service system and establishing the industry's first dual-brand PSS platform.

Delivering industry-leading reliability while undertaking a transformation of this scale speaks to the strength of our operation and our people. Our net promoter scores continue to lead the industry and our guest experience is only getting better. With the reservation cutover behind us, guest satisfaction has climbed 7 points since last quarter, led by Hawaii which jumped 10