By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com -- Shares of budget carrier Spirit Airlines Inc (NYSE:SAVE) have fallen more than 2% in early Thursday trading after the company missed earnings expectations.
Spirit posted an adjusted loss per share of $1.60 on revenue of $967.32 million. Its loss per share was more than the $1.53 predicted by analysts polled by Investing.com. However, revenue beat expectations of $960.25 million, driven by increased flight volume and higher operating yields.
Spirit also added that since mid-February, it has seen a "dramatic improvement" in demand trends, with March's total revenue per passenger segment up nearly 10% compared to March 2019.
"Based on our current booking trends, we expect second-quarter 2022 ticket revenue per segment to be significantly higher than it was in the second quarter 2019," said Ted Christie, Spirit's President, and Chief Executive Officer.
The airline sees second-quarter fuel costs per gallon between $3.85 to $3.90.
Spirit recently entered into a merger agreement with Frontier Group (NASDAQ:ULCC), rejecting a proposal from JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU). The company expects the Frontier merger to close in the second half of 2022.