Business

American has hired Nat Pieper as its new commercial chief.
Pieper, has worked at Delta, Alaska and most recently at the Oneworld alliance.
Pieper starts Nov. 3 and will oversee the Fort Worth, Texas’ airline’s commercial strategy, loyalty program, network planning and revenue and sales departments, American said.

An American Airlines plane lands at the Miami International Airport on July 24, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

American Airlines has hired nearly three-decade industry veteran Nat Pieper to be its new commercial chief as the carrier’s profits trail rivals Delta and United.
American ousted its former chief commercial officer, Vasu Raja, in 2024 after his business-travel strategy backfired and sparked pushback from lucrative corporate travel agencies, while revenue projections dropped sharply.

Pieper, 56, has worked in the industry since the late 1990s with experience at Northwest Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines. Most recently, he’s run the massive Oneworld airline alliance that includes American, British Airways and others. His positions included high-level roles in network, alliances, fleet strategy and finance.

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“He is exactly the kind of leader we want at American — collaborative and a great people leader with a relentless focus on delivering results while keeping an eye to the future,” American CEO Robert Isom said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC.
Pieper told CNBC in an interview last month that airlines in Oneworld need to do more to improve technology to make travel more seamless for customers, even when they’re moving between partner airlines, a hint of how he might improve technology while he’s at American.
He starts Nov. 3 and will oversee the Fort Worth, Texas’ airline’s commercial strategy, loyalty program, network planning and revenue and sales departments, among others, American said. More

American Airlines posted a smaller-than-expected loss for the third quarter and beat expectations for revenue.
The carrier’s fourth-quarter and full-year forecasts also came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts.

American Airlines posted a smaller-than-expected loss for the third quarter, and its outlook for the rest of the year came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts, sending the stock higher.
American expects to earn between 45 cents and 75 cents per share in the fourth quarter, above the 31 per share cents analysts expected. That brought American’s full-year earnings guidance to between 65 cents and 95 cents per share, well above the projected 43 cents per share Wall Street forecast. The carrier expects its fourth-quarter capacity to grow between 3% and 5% over the same period last year.

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Once a slam dunk quarter, airlines have found it harder to make money in the summer than in years past. Schools reopen earlier than they used to and some travelers opt to take bigger trips later in the year, when the weather is cooler and there are fewer crowds at many popular destinations.
American posted a net loss of $114 million, or 17 cents a share on revenue of $13.69 billion. Revenue was up 0.3% from last year. Excluding net special items of $3 million following the effect of taxes, the company had an adjusted loss per share of 17 cents.
American’s third-quarter outlook in July had disappointed investors, though other carriers had also cut their profit outlooks for the year after demand dropped in early 2025 as customers weighed a slew of on-again, off-again tariffs and economic uncertainty.
An oversupply of domestic flights this year prompted carriers to trim their growth plans to avoid unprofitable flying.
Here is how American performed in the third quarter compared with Wall Street estimates compiled by LSEG:

Loss per share: 17 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 28 cents expected
Revenue: $13.69 billion vs. $13.63 billion expected More

Rents for single-family residential homes rose just 1.4% in August compared with the year before, according to Cotality.
Dallas saw a 0.6% decline in rent growth, the lowest in the nation.
Apartment rent prices nationally were down 0.8% in September compared with the year before, according to a report from Apartment List.

A “for rent” sign is posted in front of a home on Dec. 12, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Rents for single-family residential homes rose just 1.4% in August compared with the year before, according to analytics and data firm Cotality, down from a 2.3% annual gain in July. That’s also much less than the 3% average gain seen last year and is the smallest increase in 15 years.
Rent growth weakened across all price points, continuing a trend that has persisted in the second half of this year. Rents had been strengthening in the first half of this year.

There were, however, strong variations regionally. Chicago saw the highest annual rent growth at 4.7% in August, followed by Los Angeles at 2.8%, Philadelphia at 2.7% and Washington, D.C., at 2.6%.
Dallas saw a 0.6% decline in rent growth, the lowest in the nation. The city recently had a surge of new multifamily apartments come onto the market, which is keeping supply higher than demand, Cotality said.
“Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles continue to show stronger rent growth, with Los Angeles now only slightly above its pre-wildfire level from January,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality. “Los Angeles ranks second among the top 10 metros for rent growth, suggesting that local conditions such as recovery efforts, limited housing supply, and regional economic factors can still influence rental trends even as national price growth moderates.”
High-end properties are faring the best, with August annual rent growth at 1.6%. Low-end rent prices increased 1.1% from a year ago, but both are well off last year’s gains.
Multifamily apartment rents have also been cooling. That is largely due to a construction boom in the sector that delivered a record number of units in the past few years, with more coming on this year.

Apartment rent prices nationally were down 0.8% in September compared with the year before, according to a separate report from Apartment List. That drop, however, was slightly less than the annual dip in August. Rents had been going more and more negative for five straight months.
The national multifamily vacancy rate was 7.1% in September, a record high for that index, according to Apartment List.
“We’re past the peak of a multifamily construction surge, but a healthy supply of new units are still hitting the market, and vacancies are still trending up,” according to Apartment List researchers.
The national median monthly rent in September was $1,394, down $11 from September 2024, the report said. As rents continue to fall, albeit slowly, rents are now below their most recent peak in August 2022, or $48 a month cheaper.
“But that cooldown came following a period of record-setting rent growth, and the typical rent price remains 22% higher than its January 2021 level,” researchers wrote. More

A new CNBC Housing Market Survey found most homebuyers expect mortgage rates to come down further.
Mortgage rates have been creeping down over the last few months, with the 30-year fixed mortgage now sitting at 6.17%.
Most real estate agents surveyed by CNBC listed affordability as the No. 1 reason why buyers are delaying their purchases.

Prospective home buyers leave a property for sale during an Open House in a neighborhood in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Roberto Schmidt | AFP | Getty Images

The majority of would-be homebuyers expect mortgage rates to continue their recent decline, and it’s one of the main reasons why they’re waiting to make a purchase, according to the findings of a new CNBC Housing Market Survey.
Rates have been creeping down over the last few months and are hovering around the lowest level in a year, with the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan now sitting at 6.17%, according to Mortgage News Daily. But nearly three-quarters of real estate agents surveyed by CNBC said most of their buyers think rates will come down further.

“My biggest challenge is when buyers hear predictions of future rate decreases, which in turn have buyers sit on the sidelines and wait to see how low they will go instead of getting out there and buying now,” said Maureen States, a real estate agent in Pittsburgh.

The CNBC Housing Market Survey is a national inquiry of real estate agents selected randomly across the United States. Responses were collected between Sept. 22 and Sept. 30. This quarter, 54 agents shared what they’re seeing in their market.
Most agents said they consider the current conditions to favor buyers over sellers, but they still listed affordability as the No. 1 reason why buyers are delaying their purchases.

Despite optimism that mortgage rates will continue to fall, agents said rates are still buyers’ top concern. That was followed by uncertainty in the economy and then just overall affordability.
That sentiment appears at least somewhat divorced from reality, however: 44% of agents reported prices are decreasing in their areas, and just 20% said they are rising.

“Sellers are still pricing for a seller’s market, and buyers are willing to wait for prices and rates to drop. It is a bit of a standoff, and folks are only moving if they absolutely must,” said Katie Kosnar, an agent in North Carolina serving Raleigh and Durham. “Right-sizing used to be a driving factor, but most sellers I’ve encountered will be paying a higher mortgage for a smaller house and just aren’t willing to make that move.”
As a result, buyers are using interest rate buydowns or turning to adjustable-rate mortgages, which offer lower interest rates, in order to offset price pressures.
Roughly 40% of survey respondents said their buyers are borrowing money from family or friends in order to afford a home. Buyers are also compromising on home size, location or features in order to bring the price down, agents said.

The vast majority of agents in CNBC’s survey said they expect home sales to either improve slightly or stay about the same in the next quarter, and about 17% expected sales to drop. Of course this varies by location, with some of the markets that heated up the most during the pandemic seeing the steepest declines, and other more affordable markets seeing bigger gains.

As for sellers, agents reported the biggest concern among that group is how long it will take to find a buyer. Some are concerned they’re pricing their home too low, and sellers, too, are watching mortgage rates closely, agents said.
About 89% of agents who took CNBC’s survey reported having at least one seller reduce their asking price, and nearly a third said more than half their sellers dropped prices.
Roughly 40% of agents said they had at least one seller delist their home, hoping to get a better price later.

Home prices continued to rise on an annual basis through August, according to several other national indexes, but the price gains are shrinking. Prices are gaining most in the Northeast and Midwest and weakening most in the South and West.
The supply of homes for sale in September was higher than it was a year ago, as were new listings after a particularly slow August, according to Zillow.
New listings usually drop from August to September, and while that was true this year — with new listings down 2% month to month — it was a smaller decline than the average 9% monthly tumble seen over the past seven years, also according to Zillow.
Inventory has made solid gains over the past year, but it is still historically tight, especially for more affordable properties.
“For buyers, low inventory and mortgage rates, from an affordability standpoint, are still a challenge,” said Holly David, an agent in Richmond, Virginia. “For sellers who are locked in to a 3% [mortgage] rate, even though they may have a housing want or need, they may not be willing or able to make a move.” More

Starting in 2026, high-income earners will lose tax breaks on charitable donations thanks to Trump’s “one big beautiful bill.”
Lawyers to the rich told CNBC that they expect a flurry of donations before year-end.
Here’s how the tax-incentive cuts work and how top earners can get ahead of them.

Krisanapong Detraphiphat | Moment | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Lawyers to the wealthy are advising clients to ramp up their charitable giving this year to take advantage of tax advantages that will decline in 2026.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending bill included provisions that reduce the tax benefits of charitable giving for high earners. Since the provisions don’t take effect until next year, advisors to wealthy donors are recommending they frontload or “bunch” their giving this year to take advantage of tax benefits.
“If you’re thinking about making a big gift, or you know you have a charity that you want to be supportive of over the next couple years, and you got the cash right now, this is the time make a big gift,” said Dan Griffith, director of wealth strategy at Huntington Private Bank.
The bill handicaps top-earning donors in two ways. First, starting in 2026, donors who itemize will only be able to deduct charitable contributions in excess of 0.5% of their adjusted gross income (AGI). With this floor, a household with an AGI of $400,000 that makes $10,000 of charitable donations in 2026 will not be able to deduct the first $2,000 in giving, according to Griffith.
Second, taxpayers in the 37% tax bracket will have their deduction reduced by 2/37th of the value. This ceiling reduces the effective tax benefit from 37% to 35%.

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While the floor and ceiling changes may seem small, they have notable ramifications for top earners. For instance, consider an entrepreneur who has $10 million in AGI after selling a business and donates $1 million to lower his tax liability. If done in 2025, the entrepreneur would get a tax reduction of $370,000, according to Griffith. Starting in 2026, the deduction would be reduced by $20,000 thanks to the ceiling and another $50,000 due to the floor, he said.

These caps are especially significant to entrepreneurs, who often make large donations when their AGI peaks in order to lower their tax burden, according to Kaufman Rossin’s Todd Kesterson, who leads the accounting firm’s private client business.
“We have a lot of our clients because they had liquidity events. I think in every case, the year they had the liquidity event, they made charitable contributions,” he said. “But now it’s kind of the worst year to make them because of the first half percent is not deductible.”
Kesterson anticipates a flurry of donations before the year-end in order to avoid the double whammy.
Top earners who are philanthropically minded should consider bunching their donations, such as giving $500,000 now rather than contributing $100,000 annually over five years, he said.
If they cannot make the donation before the end of the year, they are still better off making one large donation than spreading it out over several years and triggering the 0.5% floor multiple times, according to Griffith.
Despite the tax changes, top earners who are 73 and older can still get major tax savings by donating their required minimum withdrawal from a retirement account.
“It’s in effect, a 100% deduction, because it’s reducing their income, dollar for dollar,” Kesterson said of qualified charitable distributions.
For donors pressed for time with 2026 quickly approaching, Justyn Volesko of Cerity Partners Family Office recommends contributing to a donor-advised fund. With a DAF, donors get the upfront deduction and can wait to decide which charities to fund. It’s also simpler and faster to donate appreciated stock — which Volesko favors for capital-gains tax savings — to a DAF than a charity, he said.
While the GOP bill encourages giving by lower- and middle-income donors, the wealthy account for the majority of charitable giving. Research firm Altrata estimates that some 500,000 ultra-wealthy individuals worth at least $30 million accounted for $207 billion in donations in 2023, more than a third of the world’s total giving by individuals.
Kesterson said the new tax regime is more likely to be a nuisance for wealthy clients than a true obstacle to charitable giving. Griffith anticipates some will wonder if donating is worth it.
“It’s certainly not going to incentivize it,” he said. More

As many retailers look for ways to shrink store counts and square footage, Dick’s Sporting Goods is going bigger.
The retailer is building more sprawling “House of Sport” stores, which typically come in at 120,000 to 150,000 square feet, more than double the 50,000 for its traditional locations. The sporting goods company believes it’s working.

“We needed to build the concept that will kill Dick’s Sporting Goods,” Edward Stack, executive chairman and son of founder Dick Stack, told CNBC in an exclusive interview at Dick’s House of Sport store in Pittsburgh. “We need to build the concept that if somebody else built this store across the street from us, we’re out of business, and that’s exactly what we did.”
As shoppers prioritize experiences and choice, the locations allow Dick’s to meet them where they are. Most House of Sport stores have two-story climbing walls; sports cages for testing bats; field hockey and lacrosse sticks with statistical feedback; outdoor fields that double as ice rinks in the winter; and golf simulators.
Beyond the experiences, House of Sport has three times as much square footage devoted to footwear than a legacy store, plus 400 types of cleats in the House of Cleats section and other brands and merchandise exclusive to the concept.
“[House of Sport] has been wildly successful” Stack said. A typical House of Sport store on an does around $35 million in annual sales across channels with an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rate of roughly 20%, “so these are extremely, extremely productive.” Dick’s Sporting Goods doesn’t break out EBITDA for the full business, though it did report earnings before taxes in its most recent quarter of 14%.
Before the first House of Sport location opened, Stack said Wall Street thought the retailer should be closing stores and reducing its footprint.

“Their concept was, ‘I don’t really know how many stores you have, but you have too many’ or ‘I don’t really know how big your store is, but it’s too big, you need to make it smaller'” Stack said. “When I told them, ‘Hey, our philosophy is that in 10 years, we’ll have probably the same amount of stores, we will have a lot more square footage, that didn’t go over very well, you know, and our stock kind of stalled out for that.'”
But Stack wasn’t dissuaded.  
The retailer’s first “House of Sport” store opened in 2021, and the newest location in Jersey City, N.J. just outside of New York City debuted this month. Dick’s plans to have 35 by the end of the year and up to 100 by the end of its fiscal 2027, in addition to its more than 850 stores across Dick’s, Golf Galaxy, Field & Stream, Public Lands, and Warehouse Sale banners.
There is risk to the concept. Dick’s Sporting Goods CFO Navdeep Gupta has said on earnings calls it takes around $11.5 million of net capital expenditures to open a House of Sport store, a significant cost outlay for a physical retailer at a time when more sales are shifting online.
Further, most House of Sport locations are in malls, which are facing difficulties with shopper traffic. Recent examples show that even compelling experiential retail doesn’t always translate into financial success and can be difficult to scale. Those include a re-imagined Toys R Us post-bankruptcy, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys. Nike has had mixed success with its large flagship experiential concepts.

House of brands

Customers shop at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Chicago on March 11, 2025.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

The extra shelf space at House of Sport stores allows Dick’s to showcase more of its brand partners, both old and new. Nike, among other companies, has been impressed by the concept, Stack said.
“Nike management team came in and saw [House of Sport], and they looked around and said, ‘this is absolutely the best expression of sport anywhere in the world,'” he said.
While Nike is working on rebuilding other wholesale partnerships under new CEO Elliott Hill, Stack said “our relationship with Nike is great.” In fact, House of Sport offers Nike-produced Air Jordan and Kobe merchandise not available elsewhere.
Stack said the interconnection between experience and in-store product testing leads to merchandise sales. “That visit is not in just that visit, but then that they continue to come back,” though he declined to share further metrics.
A key merchandise strategy for House of Sport is also showcasing newer, smaller, more premium brands like Varley, Johnnie-O, Faherty, Marine Layer and others. There’s also a co-lab space, where brands are changed every 6 weeks or so. Currently, U.K.-based GymShark is using the rotating to test selling in U.S. retail.
While it’s not necessarily Dick’s goal to sell even the brands that prove successful in House of Sport in the legacy stores as well,  it could open the opportunity — or vice versa.
He pointed to running brand On, which started in the Dick’s Public Lands store format, when “to be honest with you, they were testing us to just see what it’s like to do business with us,” Stack said. He added that four years later, On is now in roughly 450 Dick’s stores and is one of the “premier brands” at House of Sport.
It’s not just brands that are interested in House of Sport. The concept also helps mall owners fill massive empty spaces that once housed department stores.
“Mall developers love having us do this now that they understand what we’re doing, because usually in the Sears wing, or a wing that has a vacant department store for a while, that wing of the mall is not usually leased very well for the developers,” Stack said. Most House of Sport stores are located where Sears, Lord & Taylor or Nordstrom used to be in A- or B-graded malls.

Betting on Foot Locker

An employee works at a Foot Locker store on May 15, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The megastores aren’t the only risk Dick’s has taken that rankled Wall Street. Investors aren’t yet sold on the retailer’s $2.4 billion-Foot Locker acquisition.
“A lot of people, when we first made this acquisition, they didn’t like it,” Stack said. “Our stock got hammered, and we knew they weren’t going to like it.”
The deal was announced in May and closed Sept. 8, taking Dick’s Sporting Goods total store count across all banners to around 3,200 in 20 countries.
While Stack is leading the Foot Locker integration, Ann Freeman, formerly of Nike, is Foot Locker’s new North America president. And as Dick’s expands its larger stores segment, footwear will be a critical component.
“Footwear is the engine that pulls the train, and between [House of Sport footwear selection] and Foot Locker … it’s going to end up to be a really good lifetime investment,” Stack said.
Stack is invested in the future of the company. He remains the largest individual shareholder, owning 13.3% of outstanding shares and 47% of voting power, according to the latest proxy from April 2025.
But even with investor disappointment over the Foot Locker deal, Dick’s shares have outperformed the athletic brands it sells or competes with. While the average analyst rating is overweight, the average target price is $241, just 6% higher than its current price.
Lululemon has shed more than half its market cap this year, Under Armour is down 42% year to date, On has lost 22% and Nike is down 9% in 2025.

Dick’s winning playbook: Youth and team sports

A large part of Dick’s Sporting Goods’ business centers on youth sports. It’s a $40 billion dollar annual market according to the Aspen Institute, with spending per child for a primary sport averaging $1,016 in 2024, up 46% in 2024 from 2019. 
Stack often says his business is more insulated from macroeconomic pressures because of its youth athlete consumer, as parents aren’t often shoving a growing child’s feet into last year’s cleats. The replacement cycle has likely contributed to 12 straight quarters of comparable sales growth for the retailer and the highest sales in company history. 
But product and sport innovation has also driven sales across Dick’s Sporting Goods business. Self-expression in baseball for example, has recently increased demand for colorful baseball mitts, baseball bats and $105 batting gloves that are among House of Sport’s best-selling products.
Stack said “innovation is more expensive” and “parents are outfitting their kids, they want to give their kids the best opportunity to succeed and to perform well.”
Stack, who oversaw massive expansion for Dick’s, also credits “the best management team we’ve ever had” and said “we never fall in love with ourself … we’re happy with something that we’ve succeeded at for about 15 minutes, and then we’re talking about, how can we make that better?” 
Going big has been Stack’s modus operandi since he took over the two-location retailer his father started in 1948 and grew it into the $20 billion market cap company it is today. Risk-taking, from new concepts to acquisitions, is also core to the DNA of the retailer Stack has built. 
“Everything in a meeting starts with ‘Yes, if…’ and can never start with ‘No, because…’ and that’s been a huge difference in our business,” he said. More

Starbucks Workers United is kicking off a strike authorization vote this Friday.
In addition, the union says it is planning a wave of rallies and pickets across the country with its baristas and allies.
Workers United, which began organizing at Starbucks in 2021, now represents over 12,000 workers across more than 650 stores. Starbucks has over 18,000 stores in North America, both company-operated and licensed.

Starbucks Workers United is kicking off a strike authorization vote Friday, as the union representing baristas makes a bid to secure a contract with the coffee giant.
The union also said it is planning a wave of rallies and pickets across the country with its baristas and allies.

Voting on authorizing a strike at unionized cafes will be open for several days. If approved, the strike itself would be open-ended, with specifics to be determined. As the voting occurs, seventy rallies and pickets will take place from Friday through Nov. 1 across 60 cities, the union said. If the union votes to go on strike, this would be the third national strike to take place since last December.
The two sides are not in active negotiations to reach a contract after talks between them fell apart in December of 2024. In February, the two parties entered into mediation, and hundreds of barista delegates voted down the economic package Starbucks proposed in April.
Workers United says it is pushing to secure a contract that addresses three key issues. The union is demanding “better hours to improve staffing,” higher take-home pay (though it did not specify a wage number) and “resolution for hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges.” Workers United, which began organizing at Starbucks in 2021, now represents over 12,000 workers across more than 650 stores. The number of unionized stores is still small, as Starbucks has over 18,000 locations in North America, both company-operated and licensed.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes to secure this contract,” Jasmine Leli, a barista at a unionized store in Buffalo, N.Y., who has been involved in regional and national bargaining, told CNBC in an interview. The union, which held a national wave of pickets in 35 cities in September and October, claims it would cost the company less than one average days’ sales to settle the contract.
Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in a statement that “Workers United only represents around 4% of our partners but chose to walk away from the bargaining table. If they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk.”

Any agreement needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks already offers the best job in retail, she added. “Hourly partners earn more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits and we’re investing over $500 million to put more partners in stores during busy times.”
“The facts show people like working at Starbucks. Partner engagement is up, turnover is nearly half the industry average, and we get more than 1 million job applications a year,” Anderson said.

Starbucks is set to report earnings for the fourth quarter on Wednesday. The stock is down 6% year-to-date, and same-store sales have fallen for six straight quarters.
The company is in the midst of a turnaround plan under new CEO Brian Niccol, dubbed “Back to Starbucks.” As part of the strategy, the company announced the rollout of its Green Apron Service plans, which rely on warm and engaging interactions between baristas and customers in the hopes of making Starbucks visits a habit.
The program is backed by changes to ensure proper staffing and better technology to keep service times fast. It was born out of growth in digital orders, which now make up more than 30% of sales, and feedback from baristas, the company has said.
The Green Apron Service push is the largest investment the company has ever made in hospitality and its store employees, Starbucks has said. On the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Cathy Smith said Starbucks will invest more than $500 million in labor hours across company-owned cafes in the next year, starting with the Green Apron Service rollout. Starbucks also began a pilot program in late September for its assistant store manager position. It now has 62 assistant store managers in newly-created leadership roles across six regions. The company says 90% of these hires are internal promotions.
Staffing has been an ongoing issue for baristas who have organized. Niccol has faced somewhat less scrutiny from the union than his predecessors have, namely former CEO Howard Schultz, who took a more combative approach.

In September, the company announced a $1 billion restructuring plan that involves closing some 500 of its North American stores, according to analyst estimates, and laying off 900 workers in non-retail roles. The union says it secured additional benefits for workers through effects bargaining at the 59 unionized stores that are closing as a result of the restructuring, including severance even if they turn down a transfer offer and extended health benefits.
At the time of the restructuring, Starbucks said in a statement that “given the industry-leading offer provided to impacted partners — including reassignment opportunities, where possible and generous severance — we were able to quickly reach and agreement with Workers United to similarly help represented partners through this transition. This reflects our commitment to partner care.”
The company added that it reached out to Workers United to work on a framework for how the changes would impact baristas in union cafes. More

Southwest Airlines reported third-quarter earnings Wednesday.
The carrier posted a surprise quarterly profit.
Southwest executives will discuss results on an analyst call on Thursday morning.

A Southwest Airlines jet approaches Midway Airport on Dec. 15, 2023, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
John J. Kim | Chicago Tribune | Getty Images

Southwest Airlines on Wednesday posted a surprise profit for the third quarter and said it expects to generate record sales in the last three months of the year thanks to better travel demand and higher fares.
The carrier said it expects unit revenue to rise between 1% and 3% for the fourth quarter, with capacity up 6% over the same period last year.

“This guidance range assumes demand strength remains at current levels through the end of the quarter,” Southwest said.
Here’s how Southwest performed in the period ended September 30 compared with Wall Street expectations, according to consensus estimates from LSEG:

Earnings per share: 11 cents adjusted vs. loss of 3 cents expected
Revenue: $6.95 billion vs. $6.92 billion expected

In July, Southwest joined other airlines in cutting its 2025 profit forecast. The Dallas carrier said it expected full-year earnings before taxes of $600 million to $800 million, down from an earlier forecast of $1.7 billion. It reaffirmed that earnings outlook on Wednesday.
The carrier has been working to better compete with rivals and increase sales, abandoning longtime policies like open seating and two free checked bags for each traveler.
Southwest CFO Tom Doxey told CNBC in an interview that increased sales from selling seat assignments would show up in the first quarter, when the first flights without open seating begin.

Southwest’s third-quarter profit fell more than 19% year over year to $54 million from $67 million. On a per-share basis, Southwest’s earnings fell to 10 cents from 11 cents a year earlier.
Adjusting for one-time items, Southwest reported $58 million in earnings for the third-quarter, or 11 cents a share. 
Revenue rose 1% to $6.95 billion from the year-earlier period. 

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