FORT WORTH, Texas: American Airlines’ fourth-quarter profit fell but met Wall Street expectations, and a key measurement of revenue trends rose for the first time since late 2014, further evidence that airlines are finally starting to push average prices higher.
American executives echoed officials at other airlines in reporting that demand for travel has picked up since the November election.
But the airline also reported a 17 percent spike in labor spending after new union contracts, and it warned that costs will rise sharply again in the first quarter.
Separately, American executives said that they would revive a previously rejected bid to work more closely with Australian carrier Qantas. The airlines want to work together on setting prices and schedules, which is forbidden without an exemption from antitrust laws.
The Obama administration rejected immunity for the deal, but industry officials believe that the new Trump administration will be friendlier.
“We are hopeful that the Trump administration will give the Qantas joint venture a second and more favorable look,” said Stephen Johnson, American’s executive vice president.
Johnson added that American, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are also asking the administration to re-examine whether Middle Eastern carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are violating an open-skies treaty by receiving unfair subsidies from their governments. The Obama administration did not act on the US carriers’ complaints.
American Airlines matches Wall Street forecast
American Airlines matches Wall Street forecast
Italy’s Saipem wins $3.1bn offshore contract for Qatar’s North Field project
RIYADH: Italy’s Saipem has secured an offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract worth about $3.1 billion for its share of a major gas project in Qatar.
The contract, awarded by QatarEnergy LNG, covers the COMP5 package of the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Complexes project. The total value of the award is approximately $4 billion, Saipem said in a statement.
The award forms part of QatarEnergy LNG’s strategy to maintain and increase production capacity at the North Field, the world’s largest non-associated natural gas field, located off the northeastern coast of Qatar.
The project scope includes the “engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of two compression complexes, each including a compression platform, a living quarter platform, a flare platform supporting the gas combustion system, and the related interconnecting bridges.”
Each complex will have a total weight of about 68,000 tonnes.
The contract has a total duration of approximately 5 years. Saipem said offshore installation operations will be carried out by its De He construction vessel in 2029 and 2030.
The new contract follows the EPCI COMP2 and COMP3 packages, which were awarded to Saipem in October 2022 and September 2024, respectively, and are currently under execution.
“The award of the COMP5 package consolidates Saipem’s collaboration with QatarEnergy LNG and reinforces the company’s presence in Qatar as a partner for the execution of complex large-scale projects,” the company said.
QatarEnergy CEO Saad Al-Kaabi said last month that the broader North Field expansion project remains on track to produce its first liquefied natural gas in the second half of 2026, Reuters reported.
The wider North Field project involves the construction of six gas trains to cool natural gas into liquefied natural gas for export by ship.
Saipem, which is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, operates as a “One Company” organized into several business lines, including asset-based services, drilling, energy carriers, offshore wind, and sustainable infrastructures.
The company owns five fabrication yards, along with a fleet of 17 construction vessels and 12 drilling rigs.
