...- A resurgence of COVID-19 cases during the fourth quarter of 2020 and into the first half of 2021 delayed an expected recovery in the volume of global air traffic, though we expect American Airlines Group Inc. and the other U.S. airlines to experience a strong rebound, at least in domestic leisure traffic, once the country achieves widespread vaccination by sometime in mid-year 2021. - Specifically, we forecast another year of heavy losses for American--albeit less severe than in 2020--before its performance improves to near breakeven in 2022, which will enable it to improve its credit measures, though we forecast it will remain highly leveraged. The company's liquidity has significantly improved due to the more than $6 billion of federal cash grants and unsecured loans it will receive under the second and third rounds of the government's payroll support programs, as well as its refinancing of the debt backed by its AAdvantage frequent flyer program, which generated an additional $2.5...
