Airline blames lack of "high yield" passengers
Continental Airlines announced a net loss of $295m last year.
The Houston-based airline said the "full-year 2009 and fourth-quarter results were adversely affected by declines in high yield traffic due to the global recession".
Jeff Smisek, Continental's CEO, said: "While we are seeing some business traffic increasing, we likely have a long and slow road to recovery. We remain focused on achieving and maintaining profitability."
Towards the end of the year, however, things were looking up for Continental, which posted a net income of $4m for the fourth quarter, despite a decrease of 9% in passenger revenue per seat mile.
The airline decreased capacity by 0.6% between September and December, recording an increase in yield of 12.6%.
www.continental.com