Airline Earnings Roundup: Flying the Failing Skies - DailyFinance

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Airline Earnings Roundup: Flying the Failing Skies - DailyFinance

Being a writer, I think I can lend the airline industry a hand: Specifically, I could formulate a template for each airline to report their quarterly results. It would have the basic three components of every airlines earnings report: net income/loss, total revenue, and a statement detailing just how high fuel costs surged this quarter.

OK, perhaps that was a little facetious, but honestly, it's growing tiresome that no matter what these airlines do to hedge their fuel bets, the bottom line is that the price of jet fuel is making it increasingly hard for them to remain profitable.

Yesterday a trio of earnings reports crossed the wire and, not surprisingly, all three shared a similarity -- rising fuel costs.

Alaska Air (NYS: ALK) continued to show why it's flying above the competition when it reported that occupancy rates actually rose 180 basis points from the year-ago period. This is impressive because ticket prices for the airline actually rose, bucking the industry-wide trend of falling ticket prices in the third quarter. Still, the fuel bug bit Alaska hard as well, with costs rising 31% and the airline coming in $0.13 light on EPS estimates and just a tad light on revenue. 

United Continental Holdings (NYS: UAL) recorded a profit that flew past Wall Street estimates, but that was only after excluding a hefty one-time merger-related expense that resulted in a $138 million quarterly loss. Like much of the airline sector, United grew sales, but it did so at the expense of capacity. United actually shrank its available seat count by 2.5% over the year-ago period. As with Alaska,


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