Continental Airlines posts wider quarterly loss CHICAGO (Reuters) =97 Continental Airlines Tuesday posted a wider quarterly= =20 loss of $221 million, kicking off the reporting season for what analysts=20 expect to be one of the worst quarters in airline industry history. The=20 Houston company, the first major U.S. carrier to report results, said the=20 loss amounted to $3.38 per share as the war in Iraq and higher fuel prices= =20 during the quarter took a toll on its business. A year earlier, it posted a= =20 net loss of $166 million, or $2.61 a share. Continental, the No. 5 U.S.=20 airline, said its loss included an after-tax charge of $41 million, or 63=20 cents a share, related primarily to the reduced market value of its MD-80=20 aircraft fleet and spare parts associated with grounded planes. Excluding=20 that charge, Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson First Call on average=20 had estimated Continental would post a loss of $2.80 per share in the first= =20 three months of 2003, with loss estimates ranging from $2.55 to $3.17. Analysts expect the U.S. airline industry to post operating losses totaling= =20 about $3 billion for the quarter. The war in Iraq and the outbreak of=20 severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, have hurt air travel demand,=20 which was already at its lowest level in decades. Continental said Tuesday= =20 it may have to cut more flights and workers if demand continues to soften.= =20 Last month, the company said it expected to cut 1,200 jobs by the end of=20 the year as part of its plan to trim $500 million a year in expenses. It=20 has also announced a 2% reduction in its summer flight schedule because of= =20 weak demand. Continental said passenger revenue for the first quarter was=20 $1.87 billion, unchanged from a year earlier, and it ended the period with= =20 $1.18 billion in cash and short-term investments. The company's shares=20 closed at $5.69 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after losing about= =20 29% of their value in the first quarter. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx 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.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************