UAL Posts Full-year Gains Despite $53 Million Q4 Loss

United parent company UAL Corp. lost $53 million in the fourth quarter as high fuel prices and other factors took their toll, but still reported a full-year profit of $403 million.

That’s it first full-year profit since 2000, excluding reorganization items, and its highest annual profit since 1999.

For the fourth quarter, United said a 25 percent year-over-year increase in the cost of fuel contributed to a $359 million increase in its fuel expenses. Some other expenses also rose, and storm-related costs that grounded flights and increased de-icing and staffing expenses also took a toll, United executives said.

United said it had to deal with more severe weather days in December than any other December on record, and more than three times the number of severe weather days it faced in December 2006.

The good news for United was that it increased its fourth quarter revenue by about $440 million, or 9.7 percent, to about $5 billion. Its yield, a measure of fares, increased 13 percent year-over-year.