US Airways Group posted a flat quarterly net profit on Thursday, despite severe winter weather, as the airline flew fuller planes and charged higher ticket prices. US Airways, the No 7 US airline, joins a list of airlines, including AMR Corp's American Airlines.
Continental Airlines and Southwest Airlines that have posted first-quarter profits. US Air's shares rose 2.4 percent after the earnings statement. "They're not quite as seasonal as other airlines because of their Phoenix hub," Ray Neidl, an airline analyst at Calyon Securities said, referring to a predictable winter slowdown for the industry. "The results are good."
The airline, formed in 2005 from the merger of America West and US Airways, said first-quarter profit totalled $66 million, or 70 cents per share, compared with a profit of $65 million, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier. US Airways' earnings per share fell because the company used almost 10,000 more shares in its computation in 2007 than it did in 2006.
Excluding special items amounting to $32 million, the airline reported a profit of $34 million, or 37 cents per share. On that basis, Wall Street analysts had expected US Airways to earn 13 cents per share.
Comments
Comments are closed.