US Airways posted a quarterly net loss on Thursday, reversing a year-ago net profit, on high fuel prices that have battered the entire industry.
The carrier said its first-quarter loss amounted to USD$236 million, compared with a profit USD$66 million a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items including some merger-related expenses, US Airways said it lost USD$239 million, or 2.60 percent.
The airline industry has been battered by rising fuel costs and stiff competition. An economic downturn, meanwhile, threatens to erode travel demand and offset efforts by carriers to raise fares and charge new fees.
"The large losses posted by US airlines this quarter, the forecast for further losses and the recent liquidations and bankruptcies of a number of carriers, indicate quite clearly that the US airline industry is in financial turmoil," US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker said in a statement.
The carrier, which formed in 2005 from the merger of US Airways and America West, said operating revenue totaled USD$2.84 billion, a gain of 3.9 percent from the first quarter of 2007.
The company said it paid USD$823 million for fuel and related taxes in the quarter, a gain of 49.5 percent.
The carrier, like its major rivals, has been working to trim capacity -- the number of seats for sale -- in hopes of bolstering revenue and wringing cost savings.
US Airways ended the quarter with USD$2.8 billion in cash and investments, of which USD$2.4 billion was unrestricted.
