United Continental Holdings' first-quarter loss widens to $213 million

Courtesy, United Airlines.

United Continental Holdings, parent of merger partners United Airlines and Continental Airlines, incurred a first-quarter net loss of $213 million, widened from a $183 million pro forma net deficit reported by the two carriers in the March 2010 quarter.

UCH was profitable on an operating basis in the first quarter as revenue increased 10.8% year-over-year to $8.2 billion and expenses heightened 11.2% to $8.17 billion. Operating income of $34 million was down 41.4% from a pro forma operating profit of $58 million in the year-ago quarter.

President and CEO Jeff Smisek said the UA/CO merger, which closed last year (ATW Daily News, Oct. 4, 2010), puts UCH in a strong position going forward. "With our people, and the power of our network, product and fleet, United and Continental are much better positioned to manage through the current high-cost fuel environment as a combined carrier than either would have been as stand-alone carriers," he said in a statement.

UCH first-quarter mainline traffic decreased 1% year-over-year to 41.27 billion RPMs on a 1.5% lift in capacity to 52.38 billion ASMs, producing a load factor of 78.8%, down 1.9 points. Yield increased 13% to 13.97 cents as PRASM rose 10.2% to 11 cents and CASM heightened 9.4% to 12.7 cents. CASM ex-fuel rose 2.2% to 8.48 cents.

The company said it lost around $30 million in first-quarter passenger revenue owing to disruptions/traffic drops caused by the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.