Continental Shrinks Regional

Regional revenue rose 8.7 percent to $543 million during the first quarter 2008 while revenue per available seat mile for Continental Express/Connection operations rose 9.8 percent and ASMs dropped 0.09 percent. Continental’s regional capacity purchase incurred net costs of $506 million, up 17.7 percent from the year-ago period.
Regional operations carried 4,243,000 passengers during the quarter, up 0.3 percent while revenue passenger miles dropped 0.1 percent to 2.357 billion. ASMs, dropped 0.9 percent to 3.098 billion and passenger load factor rose 0.6 points to 76.1 percent. Revenue per available seat miles rose 9.8 percent to 17.54 cents and average yield per RPM rose 8.9 percent to 23.05 cents. Regional fuel consumption dropped 1.3 percent to 76 million gallons for the 269 aircraft in operation in the quarter which was up 1.9 percent from the year-ago period.