American Airlines said Tuesday that it lost around $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of another pandemic-stricken year, a sign the carrier still has miles to go to recover from COVID-19 after nearly two years of struggles.

Still, the preliminary financial figures for the last three months of 2021 are better than analysts expected, giving some hope that American is gaining momentum toward eventual profitability.

The Fort Worth-based carrier said revenue was still down 17% compared with the pre-pandemic fourth quarter of 2019 and that it flew about 13% fewer flights this year as well. Losses will come somewhere between $1.74 billion and $1.24 billion.