American AirlinesOn Thursday, the Federal Payroll Support Program (Federal payroll assistance) contributed to a profit of $169 Million for the Third Quarter.

While revenue for the quarter was down by 25% from 2019, it was still up from $3.17 billion that the American made last year. The revenue was higher than analysts expected at $8.94 trillion. American’s loss of 99c per share was less than the $1.04 per-share analysts had expected, and it did not include any one-time expenses such as government payroll support.

In a memo to staff, American’s CEO Doug Parker wrote that “while we don’t enjoy reporting losses, it was our smallest quarterly lose since the pandemic started.”

American anticipates that its fourth quarter revenue will drop by 20% from 2019’s $11.3 billion. The company also indicated that it expects its capacity to fall 11% to 13% in the fourth quarter compared to two years earlier.

Fort Worth-based airline, American Airlines, forecasts that pretax margins (excluding special items) will be negative 16% to negative 18% in the fourth quarter.