Pan Am Net Increases $15.5 Million in Quarter

Pan Am Corp. said its third-quarter profit jumped $15.5 million, almost quadruple what it earned in the like 1984 quarter, because of lower fuel and employment costs in its airline subsidiary, higher efficiency, a strong U.S. dollar and full use of a new fleet of European-built Airbuses.

Net income for the quarter totaled $21.1 million, compared to $5.6 million during the same period in 1984, the company said in a statement. Third-quarter revenue reached $1.02 billion, compared to $996.3 million last year.

The airline unit had a pretax profit of $17.3 million on sales of $922.5 million in the quarter, compared to a pretax profit of $774,000 on sales of $901.5 million for the third quarter of 1984.

Jet fuel prices dropped to 84 cents a gallon from 90 cents a year earlier, and new labor contracts have raised productivity.