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UAL loses $1.77 billion

A United Airlines Shuttle jet taxis at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Monday. United's parent company, UAL Corp., reported a third-quarter net loss Monday of $1.7 billion, citing the heavy costs of restructuring its aircraft leases as it nears the completion of its overhaul. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
A United Airlines Shuttle jet taxis at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Monday. United's parent company, UAL Corp., reported a third-quarter net loss Monday of $1.7 billion, citing the heavy costs of restructuring its aircraft leases as it nears the completion of its overhaul. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

CHICAGO — Burdened by the heavy costs of reworking its airplane leases and contracts, United Airlines’ parent company reported a record $1.77 billion loss for the third quarter Monday to run its overall losses from nearly three years in bankruptcy to $9 billion.

UAL Corp. maintained that the huge charges are normal for a company nearing the end of a bankruptcy overhaul and pointed to a $165 million operating profit as evidence its restructuring is paying off.

“We have largely completed United’s restructuring work and we are on schedule to emerge from Chapter 11 in early February as we have announced,” CEO Glenn Tilton told employees in a recorded message.

Even so, it was the company’s 21st consecutive quarter in the red and the loss topped its previous record deficit of $1.47 billion for the fourth quarter of 2002, when it filed for bankruptcy.

The net loss for the July-through-September period amounted to $15.26 per share and compared with a loss of $274 million, or $2.38 per share, a year earlier.

Operating revenues rose 8.1 percent to $4.7 billion from $4.3 billion.

Excluding the total of $1.8 billion in restructuring costs for the period, UAL said it would have had a net profit of $68 million.

“Kellogg Co. reported an 11 percent increase in profit during the third quarter and boosted its full-year financial forecast, but shares of the world’s largest cereal maker still fell.

Kellogg stock slipped $2.52, or 5.4 percent, to $43.94 in Monday afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $42.20 to $46.99.

Net income rose to $274.3 million, or 66 cents per share, during the quarter from a year-ago profit of $247 million, or 59 cents per share. Sales rose 7.3 percent to $2.62 billion from $2.45 billion.

“Sysco Corp., the largest food-service distributor in North America, said Monday its profit fell 7.7 percent in the latest quarter, hurt by an accounting charge and higher transportation costs.

The Houston-based company said net income in the fiscal first quarter ended Oct. 1 fell to $208.5 million, or 33 cents a share. That’s down from $225.9 million, or 35 cents a share, in the first quarter a year ago.

The latest quarter included a charge of 5 cents a share related to a change in accounting for stock-based compensation.