Fuel Bill Dents United Continental 3Q Profit


7:59 am ET 10/27/2011- Associated Press Online


A higher fuel bill brought down United Continental's quarterly profit by 23 percent.

The company's fuel cost was $831 million bigger than last year. As a result, the airline's third-quarter net income fell to $653 million, or $1.69 per share. That was down from $852 million, or $2.16 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue, however, rose almost 9 percent to $10.17 billion because United Continental raised fares and cut back on flying.

The company would have earned $2 per share if not for one-time costs related to combining the two airlines, which took place Oct. 1, 2010.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting net income of $2.08 per share on revenue of $10.11 billion.

The year-earlier results include both United and Continental, even though they hadn't merged yet.

With fares higher and the economy weak, fewer people flew. Traffic was down 1.5 percent for the quarter compared with a year ago.





United Continental Misses By $0.07, Reports Revenue In-Line

7:34 am ET 10/27/2011- Briefing.com

Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $2.00 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.07 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $2.07; revenues rose 8.7% year/year to $10.17 bln vs the $10.14 bln consensus.

Consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for the third quarter of 2011 decreased 1.5% year-over-year on a pro forma basis, while capacity (available seat miles or ASMs) decreased 0.8% year-over-year on a pro forma basis, resulting in a third-quarter consolidated load factor of 85.3%.

Consolidated yield for the third quarter of 2011 increased 10.9% year-over-year on a pro forma basis. Third-quarter 2011 consolidated PRASM increased 10.1% compared to the pro forma results for the same period in 2010.

Mainline RPMs in the third quarter of 2011 decreased 1.6% on a mainline capacity decrease of 0.9% year-over-year on a pro forma basis, resulting in a third-quarter mainline load factor of 86.1%.

Mainline yield for the third quarter of 2011 increased 10.8% over the pro forma results for the same period in 2010.

Third-quarter 2011 mainline PRASM increased 10.1% year-over-year on a pro forma basis.