Alaska Airlines announces third quarter profit

Airline Industry Information, Oct 21, 2004

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Alaska Air Group has announced a third quarter net income of USD79.2m (USD2.94 per share), up from USD40.7m in the same period in 2003.

The results include the airline group's restructuring charges of USD27.5m and a refund of disputed navigation fees totalling USD11m. They also include the group's mark-to-market hedging gains of USD57.2m. A spokesperson for Alaska Air Group said that the recording of a profit in such a volatile market shows that the company is heading in the right direction.

Passenger traffic for Alaska Airlines in the third quarter increased by 10.8% on a capacity increase of 5.6% with its load factor improving by 3.5 percentage points to 76.0% compared to the same period in 2003.

Horizon Air, Alaska Air's other airline, reported a passenger traffic increase for the third quarter of 2004 of 29% on a capacity increase of 18.4%, giving the airline a load factor of 72.4%, up by 5.9 percentage points on 2003.

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