American Airlines indicates its positive momentum is continuing in 2Q2014

American Airlines is projecting favourable results for 2Q2014 as its pretax margin is estimated to more than double the airline's margin performance in 1Q2014. Its unit revenues are projected to grow 5.5% to 6.5%, which bodes well for the US summer high season that began in Jul-2014.

But underlying that strong performance is estimated CY2014 capacity growth of 3%, which is higher than the new normal in the current age of capacity restraint. American assures that the growth is largely driven by aircraft upgauging rather than a return to irrational supply growth within the market place. Most of the growth is geared towards international markets, reflected in American's recent launch of flights from its Dallas/Forth Worth hub to Hong Kong and Shanghai in Jun-2014.

Those routes may take some time to spool-up as American's executives have admitted that the airline's Asian markets have not been historically profitable.

Even as the American-US Airways merger remains in its early stages, for the moment the tie-up seems to be running smoothly as the airline the airline's performance in key metrics is matching its US peers.