American Airlines Group reports fourth-quarter and full year 2017 profit

American Airlines has reported a full year 2017 pre-tax profit of US$3.1bn or US$3.8bn excluding net special items, and a full year net profit of US$1.9bn, or US$2.4bn excluding net special items. American reported fourth-quarter 2017 pre-tax profit of US$425m, or US$739m excluding net special items, and a fourth-quarter net profit of US$258m, or US$455m excluding net special items. 2017 earnings were $3.90 per diluted share, or $4.88 per diluted share excluding net special items. Fourth-quarter earnings were $0.54 per diluted share, or $0.95 per diluted share excluding net special items. Accrued US$241m for the company’s profit sharing program in 2017, including US$46m in the fourth quarter. American has returned US$1.7bn to shareholders in 2017, including the repurchase of 33.9 million shares and dividend payments of US$198m.