United Airlines Parent UAL Posts $82 Million Loss

The parent of United Airlines says it lost $82 million in the first quarter, much less than Wall Street expected.

The nation's third-largest airline says one key measure of passenger revenue jumped 19 percent compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In fact, UAL Corp. says it turned an operating profit of $69 million.

The net loss worked out to 49 cents per share on revenue of $4.24 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting a loss of 77 cents per share on revenue of $4.18 billion.

United has been discussing a possible combination with Continental Airlines. Its earnings release on Tuesday said nothing about the talks.