In anticipation of a poorer-than-expected fourth quarter earnings report, Pinnacle Airlines [PNCL] last week began softening Wall Street for the news.

Operational disruptions in late December due to severe weather and computer problems "will have a negative impact on Pinnacle's fourth quarter financial results," the company said in a prepared statement. Just how much of an impact it would not say.

A unit of Northwest Airlink, Pinnacle's operations were hampered by a snow and ice storms at Memphis, Detroit and Minneapolis just before Christmas. The carrier had to cancel or reschedule a number of flights. According to its recently issued December traffic report, December was its slowest month of the year.

But weather was not the only problem. Like Comair, Pinnacle had problems with its SBS crew scheduling software, said Philip Reed, Pinnacle's spokesman (RAN, Jan. 10). The limitation in the software caused crew scheduling problems. Later this quarter, Pinnacle will get new software to correct the problems, Reed said.