Associated Press
Northwest Loss Nearly Doubles on Fuel
Thursday April 21, 10:06 am ET
Northwest's 1Q Loss Nearly Doubles on Soaring Fuel Costs, Price Competition
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) -- Northwest Airlines Corp., parent of one of the nation's biggest air carriers, said Thursday its loss nearly doubled in the first quarter as price competition weakened revenue and soaring fuel costs continued to batter its results.
The company's loss swelled to $458 million, or $5.28 per share, for the January-March period from $230 million, or $2.67 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time charges, its adjusted loss was $440 million, or $5.07 per share, Northwest said.
That compares with the average estimate for a loss of $4.56 per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Operating revenue for the period totaled $2.8 billion, an increase of 8 percent from $2.6 billion and above the $2.73 billion in revenue targeted by Wall Street analysts.
In the latest quarter, passenger revenue grew 4 percent to $2.04 billion, Northwest said. Revenue passenger miles -- one passenger flown one mile -- jumped 8.8 percent to 18.17 billion, but the amount the airline earned per passenger per mile plunged 4.7 percent to 11.2 cents.
Overall capacity on Northwest flights expanded 4.3 percent to 22.77 billion available seat miles as plane occupancy, or load factor, grew to 79.8 percent from 76.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Northwest's regional carriers took in revenue of $276 million, up 27 percent from $217 million the year before.
Northwest's fuel costs surged 40 percent to $630 million from $450 million last year, the company said.
Northwest Airlines shares gained 18 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $5.58 in early trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Northwest Loss Nearly Doubles on Fuel
Thursday April 21, 10:06 am ET
Northwest's 1Q Loss Nearly Doubles on Soaring Fuel Costs, Price Competition
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) -- Northwest Airlines Corp., parent of one of the nation's biggest air carriers, said Thursday its loss nearly doubled in the first quarter as price competition weakened revenue and soaring fuel costs continued to batter its results.
The company's loss swelled to $458 million, or $5.28 per share, for the January-March period from $230 million, or $2.67 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time charges, its adjusted loss was $440 million, or $5.07 per share, Northwest said.
That compares with the average estimate for a loss of $4.56 per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Operating revenue for the period totaled $2.8 billion, an increase of 8 percent from $2.6 billion and above the $2.73 billion in revenue targeted by Wall Street analysts.
In the latest quarter, passenger revenue grew 4 percent to $2.04 billion, Northwest said. Revenue passenger miles -- one passenger flown one mile -- jumped 8.8 percent to 18.17 billion, but the amount the airline earned per passenger per mile plunged 4.7 percent to 11.2 cents.
Overall capacity on Northwest flights expanded 4.3 percent to 22.77 billion available seat miles as plane occupancy, or load factor, grew to 79.8 percent from 76.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Northwest's regional carriers took in revenue of $276 million, up 27 percent from $217 million the year before.
Northwest's fuel costs surged 40 percent to $630 million from $450 million last year, the company said.
Northwest Airlines shares gained 18 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $5.58 in early trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.