MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Northwest Airlines Corp., the nation's fourth largest airline, reported Tuesday it lost $225 million (euro186.5 million) in the second quarter, a slightly better performance than analysts had expected as travel picked up during the summer months. Its shares rose nearly 4.5 percent in morning trading.
For the quarter ending June 30, Northwest said it lost $2.59 (euro2.15) per share, compared with a loss of $182 million, or $2.11 per share, a year ago. Excluding $54 million (euro45 million) worth of unusual items, the airline would have lost $279 million (euro231 million), or $3.21 (euro2.66) per share.
Revenue rose to $3.195 billion (euro2.65 billion) from $2.87 billion a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting a loss of $3.29 (euro2.73) per share on revenue of $3.079 billion (euro2.55 billion) for the quarter.
Northwest shares rose 20 cents to $4.65 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. They've traded between $3.77 and $11.83 in the past year.
But Northwest repeated its warning that it would have to consider filing for bankruptcy protection unless it gets concessions from workers and pension reform.
''Losses of this magnitude are not sustainable,'' said chief financial officer Neal Cohen.
He said Northwest lost an average of $4 million per day during the first half of the year. Some of those losses were attributed to fuel prices, which rose 52 percent from the same period last year, Northwest said.
The airline said it would reduce capacity by 3 percent to 4 percent in the fourth quarter.
CEO Doug Steenland said Northwest would freeze its pension plan for salaried workers and replace it with a defined-contribution plan. It wants to do the same for other workers. The pilot's union has agreed to bargain over a freeze, but Northwest is pressing other unions to do the same.
Northwest is seeking $1.1 billion (euro910 million) in concessions from employees. Pilots and managers have taken a total of $300 million (euro249 million) in cuts, and Northwest is seeking $176 million (euro146 million) from mechanics. A 30-day cooling-off period with the mechanics ends on Aug. 20, after which they can strike if there's no deal. Northwest has said it will keep flying if there's a strike.
