American still losing money

American Airlines is doing much better than a year ago, bringing in more revenue than expected, but it’s still losing money and trailing other big airline companies. American also says it’s talking with Expedia and Orbitz about getting its flights listed again on the online travel agencies’ websites. The dispute over how airline tickets are distributed threatens to make American flights harder to find — one more challenge facing the nation’s third-biggest airline company.

American parent AMR Corp. said Wednesday it lost $97 million in the fourth quarter, or 29 cents per share. That’s a smaller loss than AMR posted a year ago, and it beat the forecast of analysts, who expected a loss of 36 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue was better than expected — $5.59 billion, compared with analysts’ forecast of $5.47 billion. American made $599 million in “other revenues,” from the sale of frequent-flier miles, on-board food sales, fees for checked bags and other services.

AMR continues to lag other airlines in recovering from the recession. Delta Air Lines Inc. said Tuesday that it earned $19 million in the fourth quarter, and analysts expect other big U.S. airlines to post profits as they report their results over the next two weeks.

Other earnings

•State Street Corp., which has major operations in Kansas City, said net income fell 84 percent in the fourth quarter because of costs stemming from job cuts and the sale of securities to bolster capital. Net income dropped to $81 million, or 16 cents a share, from $498 million, or $1, a year earlier, the Boston-based company said in a statement. Operating profit was 87 cents a share, beating the 86-cent average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

•Wells Fargo & Co. on Wednesday said its fourth-quarter profit shot up, as its customers’ payment habits improved and it was able to lower the amount of reserves set aside to cover souring loans. The San Francisco-based bank said its net income attributable to common stockholders was $3.2 billion, or 61 cents per share.

Citi names a No. 2

Citigroup Inc. is promoting John Havens to president and chief operating officer, the latest step in the bank’s efforts to overhaul its management structure.

Citi, which exited government ownership last month, has also sold off businesses. Havens currently serves as CEO of the bank’s institutional clients group. as president and COO he will be responsible for Citigroup’s daily operations.

Business in brief

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