American Airlines says cancellations hurt first-quarter results

(Reuters) - American Airlines Group on Tuesday said flight cancellations because of bad weather hurt first-quarter results. The carrier canceled more than 34,000 flights in the first three months of this year, reducing quarterly revenue by about $115 million and operating profit by about $60 million. American said it now estimated operating margin at 5 percent to 7 percent for the first quarter, down from a late January forecast of 6 percent to 8 percent. The company also had said in January that pretax margin would probably be between 4 percent and 6 percent. The company formed by the December merger of AMR Corp and US Airways said on Tuesday that it expected passenger revenue per available seat mile, an important measure called unit revenue, to show a rise of 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. That compares with an outlook of 2 percent to 4 percent growth given last month. (Reporting by Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)