LUV Southwest Airlines Co

Southwest Airlines Co.'s profit again soared above expectations in the most recent quarter, propelled by cheap fuel and unit-revenue growth.

But Chief Executive Gary Kelly warned of a challenging fare environment and softening close-in yields in recent weeks. The airline said it anticipates unit revenue to fall 3% to 4% in the current quarter. The stock fell 4.8% to $40 in premarket trading.

In the quarter ended June 30, Southwest's unit revenue—the amount taken in per seat flown a mile—rose 0.6% from the year-ago quarter, "despite a very competitive fare environment." The metric is closely watched as a sign of demand and how well an airline is generating sales. Unit revenues have been declining across the industry because of relatively rapid expansions.

Fuel and oil expenses fell 10% in the quarter, and the average cost of fuel dropped to $1.81 a gallon, from $2.02 in the year-ago quarter. The No. 4 U.S. carrier by traffic estimated fuel costs of $2.05 in the current quarter.

Southwest and its U.S. airline peers have broadly benefited from less competition and the swoon in fuel prices.

Dallas-based Southwest became the fourth-largest domestic carrier over the past four decades by flying exclusively within the continental U.S. But with dwindling growth opportunities at home, it has been expanding abroad.

Load factor rose to 85.6% from 84.6% a year earlier. Traffic climbed 6%, while capacity increased 4.8%.

In all for the quarter, Southwest posted a profit of $820 million, or $1.28 a share, up from $608 million or 90 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, earnings on a per-share basis rose to $1.19 from $1.03 a year ago.

Revenue rose 5.3% to $5.38 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of $1.21 a share on $5.41 billion in revenue.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 21, 2016 07:55 ET (11:55 GMT)

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