Continental CEO: winners, losers will emerge from current slump HOUSTON (AP) ? The nation's major airlines are like three-legged horses in an ugly race against financial losses fueled by a weak economy, terrorism fears and a mysterious virus outbreak in Asia, Continental Airlines chief executive Gordon Bethune said Wednesday. First-quarter earnings have reflected the woes, with fifth-largest Continental Airlines losing the least at $221 million and American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, on Wednesday reported a $1 billion loss. The other two carriers that have so far released earnings for the same period, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, lost $466 million and $396 million respectively. "It's not a real pretty sight. As you guys know, every race has a winner," Bethune told business leaders at the Greater Houston Partnership. Bethune acknowledged the larger losses came from larger airlines, but he said Fort Worth-based American, twice as big as Continental, reported losses much more than twice those of the Houston-based carrier. American continued struggling with bankruptcy worries Wednesday with union unrest over the airline's approval of executive bonuses and pension payments protected in Chapter 11 as leaders pushed workers to approve a $1.8 billion package of cuts. The current slump already has forced US Airways and United Airlines into bankruptcy, but US Airways emerged earlier this month. Bethune, a former Continental pilot, declined to speculate whether one of the five largest carriers has to go under for the others to survive. But he questioned United's chances, implying it needs an aviation leader. United CEO Glenn Tilton, former chief executive of Texaco, Inc. before its acquisition by Chevron Corp., was an aviation newcomer when he took the helm of the second-largest carrier in September. United filed the largest bankruptcy in aviation history in December. Continental twice survived bankruptcy filings in 1983 and 1990. "If you start a watch repair business, wouldn't it be good for you or I to know how a watch works?" Bethune said. Analysts have said United appears on a course to avoid liquidation under Tilton's leadership. But Paul Biederman, a professor of airline management at New York University, said consolidation would help surviving airlines and United is the most likely candidate to disappear. "That would be a favorable outcome for the rest of the industry, with United's revenues divided up. The others could take those assets and integrate them into their systems," he said. Airlines have cut jobs, slashed costs and grounded aircraft in response to the slump. Continental already had implemented measures to cut costs and generate revenue in late 2002 to improve annual operating results by $400 million, and last month the carrier introduced additional measures, including elimination of 1,200 jobs, to save $500 million pretax. Bethune said winners and losers will emerge, and the winners will be those that cut enough, but not too much. "Those that can't do that, tough luck," he said. *************************************************** 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.pscutt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************