United Airlines' parent UAL reports narrower $53M loss for 4Q

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. reported a $53 million loss for the fourth quarter Tuesday on a sharp rise in the price of fuel and bad weather that forced a raft of holiday flight cancellations.

The nation's second-largest carrier joined other U.S. airlines in seeing its bottom line hurt significantly because of the jump in oil and jet fuel costs.

Net income for the last three months of 2007 amounted to 47 cents a share and was slightly improved from a loss of $61 million, or 55 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue was $5.03 billion, up 9.7 percent from $4.59 billion a year ago.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 89 cents per share and revenue of $4.95 billion, based on a survey by Thomson Financial.

Poor December weather forced United to canel about 2,350 flights last month -- more than 4.9 percent of its systemwide departures. Labor discord also is thought to have contributed to its schedule problems, with at least one analyst saying pilots called in sick and refused to fly customary extra hours due to an ongoing dispute with management over pay. The pilots union blamed staffing shortages.

UAL made no comment in its earnings release about talks it has been widely reported to be holding with Delta Air Lines Inc., which is looking at potential combinations with both United and Northwest Airlines Corp. United CEO Glenn Tilton has long expressed interest in a combination.

Despite its first loss since the first quarter of 2007, the Chicago-based company still posted net income of $403 million for all of 2007 -- its first full-year profit since 2000. It officially reported a $23 billion on-paper gain for 2006, but that reflected a formal settling of accounts from its three-year bankruptcy reorganization and was not a true profit.

UAL said fourth-quarter operating expenses rose by $531 million, or about 12 percent, because of a $359 million increase in fuel costs. It said the severe winter storms that took place in Chicago and Denver in December increased costs for staffing and glycol, a deicing chemical.

In a message to employees, Tilton said the company "made real progress in 2007" in the face of unprecedented fuel costs. He said UAL's operating profit of about $1 billion for 2007 was an increase of half a billion dollars over 2006 and its operating margin more than doubled.

UAL shares fell $1.94, or 5.9 percent, to $31 in premarket trading.