UAL Reports Narrower Loss for Fourth Quarter

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said Tuesday that it narrowed its fourth-quarter net loss to $476 million as the company cut costs and benefited from share sales in Internet companies Orbitz Inc. and Hotwire.

The loss at the world’s second-largest airline shrank to $4.33 a share from $1.47 billion, or $20.70, in the fourth quarter of 2002, the Chicago-based company said.

Sales rose 4.2% to $3.62 billion from $3.47 billion.

United has cut costs, started discount airline Ted and reduced some business fares to help stem losses and prepare to emerge from bankruptcy protection by midyear. UAL filed the largest U.S. airline Chapter 11 reorganization in December 2002 after $5.4 billion in losses over two years.

Excluding $225 million in bankruptcy costs and the $158-million gain from the sale of shares in Web travel companies Hotwire and Orbitz, UAL’s loss was $251 million, or $2.30 a share. UAL’s operating loss narrowed to $135 million from $859 million in 2002’s fourth quarter.

Expenses in the latest quarter fell 16% to $3.75 billion from $4.46 billion, led by decreases in labor and aircraft costs. UAL expects to meet its goal of reducing costs by $5 billion annually by 2005, including employee pay, benefit and work rule concessions worth $2.56 billion.

For the full year 2003, UAL had a net loss of $2.8 billion, or $27.36 a share, compared with $3.21 billion, or $53.55, in 2002.

UAL shares rose 3 cents to $1.62 in over-the-counter trading.