American Airlines Group Inc.’s third-quarter profit exceeded analysts’ expectations as fuel costs dropped. Earnings fell to $1.76 a share, compared with the $1.69 average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales declined 1.1 percent to $10.6 billion, the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier said in a statement Thursday. Analysts had predicted $10.5 billion. Average domestic fares rose after American trimmed expansion plans to help avoid discounting that’s driven down a key revenue measure for more than a year. The airline, the world’s largest, also benefited from a long-awaited improvement in ticket prices in Latin America, which accounts for about 12 percent of its revenue. American said Oct. 11 that it would limit 2016 capacity growth to 1.5 percent, at least the second reduction this year. Investors have been pushing airlines to pull back on adding seats or flights to tighten supply and give them more pricing power. Revenue growth from each seat flown a mile has been down across the industry for about 18 months. U.S. carriers are expected to report pretax profit of $6.5 billion for the third quarter, which would be the first year-over-year decline since the end of 2012, Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Linenberg said in a recent note.