Traffic Is Up, but AirCal Expects 1st-Quarter Loss

Despite increases in its load factor and traffic, AirCal Inc. said Thursday that it “continued pricing and other competitive actions during the first quarter of 1986 that will result in a loss for the quarter.”

The regional carrier said it expects to report results for the first quarter of 1986 by mid-April. A year ago AirCal reported net income of $2 million for the first quarter. For all of 1985, the airline posted net income of $9.3 million, a 9% increase from net income of $8.5 million for the prior year.

The airline said it flew 138 million revenue passenger miles in February, a 16.9% gain from 117.8 million revenue passenger miles for the same month a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile represents one paying customer carried one mile.

The Newport Beach-based company said the load factor, or percentage of seats sold, was 54.2% last month, compared to 52.9% for the same period last year.

For the first two months of 1986, the regional carrier said revenue passenger miles totaled 287.3 million, an 18.5% gain from 242.4 million for first two months of 1985.

Load factor for the first two months was 53.4%, the airline said, compared to 50.3% for the comparable period last year.