Northwest loses $1.1B in first quarter
 

According to USAtoday, Northwest Airlines said Wednesday it lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter, attributing most of the red ink to bankruptcy expenses. The carrier said its loss would have been $129 million without $975 MILLION in bankruptcy expenses.

Gotta pay those really smart lawyerz!!!!..isnt Steal-and a lawyer?

USAirways and United showed just how much an airline can write down in BK on a qurterly basis. This week Delta reported a 2.1 BILLION dollar loss (still outdone by UAL's 2.5 Billion dollar one quarter loss while in BK). Look for more of the same.

How come no one on this board posted a thread about United's
$23 BILLION DOLLAR gain sometime this year??


You need to be very weary of these figures when an airline is in bankruptcy! You will see these huge quarterly losses (like UAL's $2.43 billion), but they are generally all on paper. Then you see a giant gain at the end (like UAL's $23 billion). These numbers don't mean anything. They really don't.

Look at operating loss! Look at RASM, look at CASM, see how their load factor is doing. These numbers truly matter.

And I know that bankruptcy court costs (especially lawyer fees) cost good amounts of money (over $100 million for the process), but the fact is that the two recent airlines in bankruptcy (US Air and United) have come out much stronger airlines.

Well, I think you answered your own question. It's because the $23 Billion dollar "profit" is an accounting trick and doesn't reflect the operational reality of UAL's income.

didn't united just lose $300 million this last quarter....