The information content of earnings releases by global airlines

This paper provides a systematic assessment of the usefulness of earnings releases by global airlines. Utilizing a standard event study methodology, it is found that the sample as a whole does not possess significant information content. The information content of earnings is found to be related to the size of the releasing firm but no clear differences are detected for airlines from different accounting clusters. Several possible explanations are offered for the lack of strong earnings information content in the context of global airlines.