AirCal Profits Up 147% with $2-Million Quarter

AirCal Inc. said Thursday it earned $2 million in the first quarter of 1985, a 147% increase over the $828,000 posted one year ago. That makes the seventh consecutive profitable quarter for the Newport Beach-based airline which has sustained a dramatic financial turnaround. By posting operating revenues of $80.1 million in the first three months of this year, AirCal broke its own first quarter record and topped by 21.7% the $65.8 million in revenues it posted for the same period last year. Operating expenses for the quarter increased 24% to $75.2 million from $60.6 million.

First-Quarter Net Income Drops for Mercury Savings

Huntington Beach-based Mercury Savings & Loan Assn. said Thursday it earned $713,000 for the first quarter of 1985, a 55% drop from a $1.6-million profit in the year-ago quarter.

Ed Richardson, the S&L;’s vice president of finance, blamed the company’s earnings decline on a reduction in mortgage lending. He said potential homebuyers, enticed by an earlier slip in mortgage interest rates, held off purchases in hope that rates might drop further. Mercury’s real estate loans dropped 40% to $109 million in the first quarter of this year, compared to $182 million for the same quarter of 1984, he said.

Despite the earnings decline, Mercury increased its business volume, posting revenues of $57.2 million during the first quarter of this year, compared to $49.6 million in the same quarter last year. But expenses also rose to $56.5 million from $47.7 million.