Continental Airlines posts profit

Continental Airlines Inc. reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit Thursday as it put more people on its flights and charged higher fares.

It was the first time since 2001 that Continental earned a profit in the typically weak first quarter of the year, and followed a similar report Wednesday from the parent of American Airlines.

Continental said it earned $22 million, or 21 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $66 million, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, including a $7 million gain from selling its stake in regional carrier ExpressJet Holdings Inc. and $11 million in charges, Continental said it would have earned 25 cents per share.

Analysts, who typically exclude special items from their calculations, had forecast 14 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose 7.9 percent, to $3.18 billion from $2.95 billion a year ago and nearly matching the $3.19 billion forecast of analysts.

Winter storms that caused flight cancellations reduced revenue by $10 million, the Houston-based carrier said.

President Jeff Smisek said revenue grew almost twice as fast as the airline added capacity. He said international routes outperformed the U.S. business.

Continental's revenue per miles flown by passengers, a key measure in the airline industry, rose 5.9 percent _ faster than the 4.7 percent addition in capacity.

The average plane was 79.1 percent filled, up 0.9 percentage points from a year ago. Occupancy barely gained on U.S. flights but rose 2 percentage points on international routes.