Continental Airlines posts loss on weak demand

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Continental Airlines (CAL.N) posted its fifth straight quarterly loss on Wednesday on lower traffic, particularly among business travelers, echoing a trend seen among most major airlines this earnings season.

The world's fifth largest airline's first-quarter loss widened to $136 million, or $1.10 cents per share from $80 million, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding $4 million of aircraft-related charges, the airline's loss was $1.07 per share, beating analyst expectations of a loss of $1.15 per share, according to Reuters estimates.

Continental's losses were consistent with those reported last week by American Airlines parent AMR Corp (AMR.N) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N). However, AirTran (AAI.N) reported a quarterly profit on Wednesday, snapping the airline industry's losing streak.

Like many other carriers, Continental has cut capacity and fares in a bid to fight wilting demand. Consolidated capacity dropped 7.2 percent in the first quarter, while consolidated average fares fell 7.4 percent.

Still traffic fell 11.2 percent from a year earlier as many consumers "curtailed travel or purchased lower yield economy tickets," the company said in the release.

The company's mainline load factor-- a measure of how full the plane is-- was 75.8, off 3 points from a year earlier.

Total revenue fell 17 percent to $3 billion.

Continental's fuel expenses declined more than 40 percent, compared to last year, helping the carrier cut its mainline cost per available seat mile (CASM) 10 percent.

The carrier is currently scheduled to take delivery of nine Boeing 737 aircraft in 2009. By the end of the year, the company expects to remove 27 additional Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 aircraft from service.

In premarket trade, Continental shares were off 1.1 percent to $14.83 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Continental stock has fallen about 16 percent since the start of 2009, when shares were about $18.06. But shares have more than doubled since early March, while the broad S&P 500 .SPX plunged to 12-year-lows.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Derek Caney)