Southwest Airlines Co. shares
LUV,
+2.82%
slid 1.2% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the airline said slowing bookings and an increase in cancellations in August driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus means it is unlikely to be profitable in the third quarter. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the airline said July operating revenues performed in line with its expectations with leisure passenger traffic and fares both above 2019 levels, before the trend reversed in August. "Based on the assumption that COVID-19 cases remain elevated in the near-term and current revenue trends in August continue into September, the company's current outlook for third quarter 2021 operating revenues has worsened by an estimated three to four points from its previous outlook three weeks ago, compared with third quarter 2019," said the filing. The company now expects July operating revenue to be down about 12% compared with 2019, versus a prior estimate of down 10% to 15%. It expects its August operating revenues to do down 15% to 20%, and for September revenue to be down 15% to 25%, leaving third-quarter revenue down 15% to 20%. It expects its load factor to come to about 87% in July, 80% in August and 75% to 80% in September. It expects its third-quarter load factor to be down 80% to 85%. Available seat miles are expected to be up about 41% in July and August, to be up about 68% in September and up about 49% in the third quarter. Shares have gained 9.7% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.10%
has gained 18%.