CHICAGO (dpa-AFX) - United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) Thursday reported a fourth-quarter loss that narrowed from last year, helped mainly by lower integration costs as well higher revenues. Following the announcement, United Continental's stock rose over six percent. The Chicago-based airline company's net loss for the quarter narrowed to $138 million or $0.42 per share from $325 million or $1.01 per share last year. United Continental Holdings was formed from a merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines. The quarter includes financial results of its two operating subsidiaries, United Airlines and Continental Airlines following the October 2010 merger, while prior year's results included only that of United. Results for the quarter under review includes $247 million of special items, such as integration-related costs, termination of maintenance contracts and asset impairment charges. The year-ago quarter included $485 million in special items. Integration costs declined to $170 million from $493 million last year. Excluding special items, net income for the quarter amounted to $109 million or $0.30 per share. On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.12 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items. Total operating revenue for the fourth quarter grew 5.5 percent to $8.92 billion from $8.46 billion last year. Street analysts on a consensus estimated revenues of $8.94 billion for the quarter. Chief Executive Jim Compton said, 'Our strong revenue performance is a direct result of offering customers an unmatched global route network and competitive products, and our co-workers' focus on service.' The company' aircraft fuel costs for the quarter rose 26.3 percent to $3.11 billion, and was a major contributor to expenses. Overall, total operating expenses increased 3.9 percent to $8.88 billion from $8.55 billion last year. Excluding fuel costs, operating expenses decreased 1.5 percent year-over-year. Traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles, for the quarter dropped 3.2 percent 49.47 billion, however the company also lowered its capacity by 2.5 percent to 60.71 billion available seat miles. This helped the airlines to keep its load factor above 80 percent. Load factor edged down 0.5 percentage points to 81.5 percent. Passenger revenue per available seat mile increased 8.2 percent to 12.87 cents from 11.89 cents last year, helped by hike in fares. UAL is currently trading on the NYSE at $21.85, up $1.44 or 7.06 percent, on a volume of 9 million shares
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