Delta, TWA, PS Group Report Improvements

Delta Air Lines reported a fiscal third-quarter profit of $26.4 million, compared to a year-earlier loss of $6.38 million.

Trans World Airlines, meanwhile, said it narrowed its loss to $54.8 million in the quarter ended March 31, down from a $169.6-million loss in the same quarter of 1986.

Separately, San Diego-based PS Group, the parent of Pacific Southwest Airlines, said it trimmed its first-quarter loss to $7.3 million from $9.9 million a year earlier.

Atlanta-based Delta said its latest figures included the results of Western Air Lines, which Delta acquired last Dec. 18, while the year-earlier results do not.

In New York, TWA said it reduced its first-quarter 1986 pretax loss from operations to $27.4 million from $149.4 million a year earlier.

TWA Chairman Carl C. Icahn attributed the reduced first-quarter loss to cost controls, a restructuring of TWA’s route system, lower fuel expenses and the absence of the labor strife and terrorism-related passenger declines that TWA encountered a year earlier.

In San Diego, the first-period loss by PS Group came despite a 10.4% increase in revenue to $234.6 million.

The company showed an operating profit of $5.3 million, compared to an operating loss a year earlier of $4.2 million. But that profit was more than offset by non-operating expenses.