Compares With $228M Profit In Same Period Last Year

Woe, how times have changed. Last year at this time, Continental Airlines was basking in the glow of a $228 million profit in the second quarter... but Thursday, the Houston-based carrier posted a $3 million net loss for the same timeframe this year.

Reuters reports the loss works out to three cents per share. Investors gained $2.03 per share last year. But it could have been a lot worse.

Excluding special items -- including money earned from a big selloff of Continental's stock in Copa Airlines -- the loss was $25 million. That beat investor estimates, which had expected a loss closer to 49 cents per share.

Since the airline was able to lose substantially less money than expected, shares in Continental rose Thursday in early trading... following the trend in surging stock prices among airline stocks this week.

"Like American Airlines and Delta, Continental did slightly better than expected mainly due to a bit stronger yield than expected -- however yield increase are not enough to offset skyrocketing fuel prices," said Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl. "Big capacity cuts in the second half of the year will hopefully lend some strength to ticket prices, even in a slow economy."

Continental's quarterly earnings rose nine percent, to $4 billion -- helped by new fuel surcharges and service fees, as well as growth among Continental's international operations.

The airline has also made significant progress towards hedging its future fuel prices. In recent days, Continental has hedged 63 percent of its projected fuel needs for the rest of the year, and 29 percent of its expected requirements for the first half of 2009.

FMI: www.continental.com