Continental quarterly loss narrows, revenue grows HOUSTON (Reuters) =97 Continental Airlines, the No. 5 U.S. airline,= Wednesday=20 said its quarterly loss narrowed as it pulled in more revenue, setting it=20 up to be one of the better-performing companies in an industry expected to= =20 report a nearly $8 billion loss for 2002. Houston-based Continental=20 reported a $109 million net loss for the fourth quarter, a loss of $1.67=20 per share. The first of the major U.S. air carriers to report its results,= =20 Continental said revenue grew more than 17%, to $2.04 billion from $1.74=20 billion a year earlier. The airline, which reported a loss of $2.58 per=20 share a year earlier, handily outperformed analysts' earnings forecasts and= =20 beat the average estimate of a loss of $1.99 per share. More than a year=20 after the Sept. 11 attacks, the airline industry is still expected to=20 reveal bigger losses than it showed in 2001 as demand for air travel stays= =20 weak and ticket prices remain low. Continental showed a $451 million loss=20 for the full 2002 year, more than four times the shortfall it reported for= =20 2001. Shares of Continental, which closed 14 cents lower at $8.90 Tuesday on the= =20 New York Stock Exchange, have risen about 17% since the airline said on=20 Jan. 2 that passenger traffic was better than expected in December. Its=20 stock has dropped about 78% since Sept. 11, 2001. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.atlanticlng.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************