The carrier’s $68 million fourth-quarter profit was its first in two years without government aid.
Southwest Airlines on Thursday reported a $68 million profit for the final three months of last year as it struggled to shake off setbacks caused by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has delayed the travel recovery and is expected to drag the airline to a loss in the first three months of this year.
Now, with cases falling, “the worst appears to be behind us,” Bob Jordan, Southwest’s executive vice president, who will take over as chief executive next week, said in a statement.
The company had reported quarterly profits earlier last year, but the fourth quarter was the first in two years in which Southwest achieved a profit without the support of government aid. The airline received $2.7 billion in federal grants to help pay workers in 2021, helping to lift it to a full-year profit of $977 million.