AAL

American Airlines is the weakest-balance-sheet major US carrier, and FY2025 underscores the fragility. Revenue was essentially flat (+0.8% to $54.6B) but profitability collapsed: net income fell 86.9% to just $111M and operating income dropped 43.9% to $1.47B, compressing the operating margin to 2.7% and net margin to a wafer-thin 0.2%. EPS of $0.17 is down 86.3% year over year, after the company had recovered to $822M-$846M net income in FY2023-2024. The earnings volatility — from a -$1.99B loss in FY2021 to peaks and now back near breakeven — illustrates how little cushion the business has.

The balance sheet is the core problem. Stockholders' equity is negative at -$3.73B, retained earnings are -$6.73B, and long-term debt stands at $24.6B with another $3.64B current. Current liabilities of $24.5B exceed current assets of $12.2B by roughly 2x, and cash is just $1.06B — a precarious liquidity position for a capital-intensive, fixed-cost business. Operating cash flow fell 22.2% to $3.10B while capex jumped 40.8% to $3.78B, meaning the company spent more on aircraft than it generated from operations, deepening reliance on debt.