Republic loss narrows

Republic Airways Holdings, parent of Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America, has posted a net loss of $7.1 million in the first quarter 2012. This is down on the $22.4 million net loss posted in the same period a year ago. First-quarter operating revenues were up by 5.8% to $697.6 million. With expenses of $675.4 million, the airline group posted an operating profit of $22.2 million, a substantial increase on the $600,000 operating loss posted in the same period last year. Passenger traffic declined by 8.6% to 2.30 billion RPMs with capacity of 3.37 billion ASMs. Load