American, Southwest post Q3 profits with help from taxpayers

By DAVID KOENIG
AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS (AP) — American and Southwest Airlines are reporting that they made profits in the third quarter, thanks to large amounts of government pandemic relief. The airlines said Thursday they are expecting strong traffic over the holidays if cases of COVID-19 keep declining. The highly contagious delta variant cut into revenue over the last couple months. Still, American posted a $169 million profit after collecting nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to cover most of its payroll costs. And Southwest earned $446 million after getting $763 million in federal aid.