Hedge fund positions in airline equities suggest bullish sentiment, adding weight to a positive AAL stock forecast The rise in non-fuel unit cost or cost per available seat mile (CASM: adjusted) for the September quarter was a very steep 5.7% year over year. The global IT outage in July pushed adjusted CASM higher in the September quarter, thereby hurting the bottom line. Evidently, in the third quarter of 2024, earnings decreased 26.1% on a year-over-year basis, mainly due to high labor costs. Non-fuel unit cost or cost per available seat mile for the December quarter is expected to increase 3% from fourth-quarter 2023 levels. CEO Robert Isom told CNBC's " Squawk Box " that the results are driven by consumer weakness, flat corporate travel demand that continued into the start of the summer and operational problems from a series of storms. In the airline sector, AAL stock forecast 2025 hinges on passenger load factor sustaining above 85%, which Wall Street views as a key profitability trigger. Fuel hedging strategies are likely to mitigate volatility risks.