Three takeaways from Alaska Airlines Q4 2025 results: income down vs 2024, turning point in Q4, and Alaska driving group’s profits
Alaska Airlines has released its Q4 2025 financial results, with the quarter marking yet another important step in fully integrating Hawaiian Airlines. At the same time, there were some worrying signs for the group, including losses at Hawaiian Airlines and its regional operations.
Income down vs 2024
Alaska Air Group, which includes Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Horizon Air, ended 2025 with net income of $293 million, down from $625 million in 2024. Operating income was $303 million in 2025, down from $570 million in 2024.
While on a pro forma basis, both full-year revenues and operating expenses were up 3% year-on-year (YoY), the yearly revenue per available seat mile (RASM) and cost per available seat mile excluding fuel and other items (CASMex) grew unevenly by 1.4% and 4.7% YoY.
Rytis Beresnevicius
Q4 operating income up YoY despite shutdown
Although net income was down YoY, the airline’s operating income came in 3% higher on a pro forma basis compared to the same quarter last year. During the first nine months of 2025, Alaska Airlines’ operating income was 4% lower YoY.
That was despite the fact that on December 3, 2025, the company warned that an internal IT outage, the government shutdown, and “higher fuel costs” affected its earnings per share (EPS) by between $0.55 and $0.60.
“Revenue, which had shown the strongest year-over-year performance trends of 2025 prior to the shutdown, turned sharply negative during the period and, although now positive again year-over-year, has not fully recovered to pre-shutdown trends.”
One thing to note about the company’s quarterly revenue is that group-wide load factors dropped by 2.3% YoY while yields were up 2.9% YoY, suggesting that Alaska Airlines focused on higher yields to offset lower demand during the quarter.
Rytis Beresnevicius
Alaska Airlines is the profit engine
Unsurprisingly, Hawaiian Airlines, which has struggled for profitability since 2020, ended 2025 with a $189 million loss before taxes. In 2024, the loss was only $58 million.
The group’s regional operations were also slightly loss-making, or break-even, depending on your view of whether the glass is half empty or half full, with Horizon Air, as well as its regional partners, carrying a loss before taxes of $1 million.
Alaska Airlines, the flagship of the group, ended the year with pre-tax income of $526 million, which was still lower than its 2024 result of $744 million. While revenues were relatively flat, rising operating costs and a non-operating expense of $15 million resulted in the worsening results.
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