April 23 (Bloomberg) -- US Airways Group Inc. posted a first-quarter net loss of $103 million as the recession crimped travel demand, while JetBlue Airways Corp. reported a profit of $12 million on lower fuel costs. Both beat analysts’ estimates and US Airways rose 10 percent in New York trading.

The results by US Airways, the sixth-largest U.S. airline, pushed first-quarter operating losses to $2 billion for the domestic industry’s 9 biggest carriers. The combined loss was narrower than the $2.3 billion estimate by Michael Derchin, an FTN Equity Capital Markets Corp. analyst in New York.

Airlines slashed fares in an effort to lure travelers who curbed spending as the economy slowed. The carriers benefited from a 52 percent drop in jet fuel’s average price from a year earlier, and said the falloff in travel may be abating.

“The revenue environment does seem to have bottomed out,” US Airways President Scott Kirby said today on a conference call with analysts and investors. “It doesn’t seem to be getting worse, but it’s not getting better.”

US Airways said its loss excluding costs for advance- purchase fuel contracts was $260 million, or $2.28 a share. That was narrower than the $2.33 average of 9 analysts’ estimates on that basis compiled by Bloomberg.

JetBlue’s profit excluding costs to reduce the value of auction-rate securities was $20 million, or 8 cents a share, more than the 3-cent average estimate from 11 analysts.

Alaska Air Group Inc., the parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, posted a net loss of $19.2 million, or 53 cents a share. Excluding gains from fuel hedges, the loss was 70 cents, wider than the 46-cent average of 8 analyst estimates.

US Airways gained 44 cents to $4.80 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, while JetBlue rose 7 cents to $5.65 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Alaska Air fell $2.44, or 12 percent, to $17.38.

US Airways

US Airways’ per-share net loss of 90 cents narrowed from $237 million, or $2.58 a share, a year earlier. Sales declined 14 percent to $2.46 billion, the Tempe, Arizona-based company said in a statement.

Revenue for the full year is “difficult to forecast,” Parker said. The company said passenger unit revenue, a measure of fares and travel, will drop about 10 percent for April and didn’t provide forecasts for the other months of this quarter.

US Airways expects to generate as much as $500 million during 2009 from fees such as charges for pillows and blankets and extra costs for select seats, Parker said.

US Airways said today that customers can now pay charges for checked bags on the carrier’s Web site. Those who elect to pay the $15 for a first checked bag and $25 for a second at the airport now face an additional $5 per bag. The airline’s most frequent fliers, first-class passengers and those on trans- Atlantic flights are excluded from the fees.

JetBlue

JetBlue’s net income was 5 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $10 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier. Sales fell 2.9 percent to $793 million, the New York-based discount airline said in a statement.

The profit was JetBlue’s first for the period in five years, and the company said it expects to continue making money in each quarter of 2009. The airline paid 31 percent less for fuel in the first quarter than a year earlier, pushing total operating expenses down 9.9 percent.

JetBlue will trim seating capacity as much as 3 percent this quarter by reducing the average length of its flights. The airline will shift planes away from cross-country routes where demand has fallen in the recession. For the full year, the so- called average stage length will fall 4 percent from 2008.

“Despite a challenging economic environment, we continued to outperform the industry in unit revenue growth,” Chief Executive Officer Dave Barger said in the statement.

Costs for each seat flown a mile, a measure of efficiency, fell 4.8 percent.

Alaska Air

Alaska Air’s net loss narrowed from $37 million, or $1.01 a share, a year earlier. The company had a gain of $6.2 million, or 17 cents, from advance-purchase fuel contracts.

Alaska Air flies mainly on the U.S. West Coast. The Seattle-based carrier joined most of the rest of the U.S. industry in charging passengers for a first checked bag, with a $15 fee on flights starting July 7. Some travelers, including those in first class, won’t have to pay the fee.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at maryc.s@bloomberg.net; Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at mcredeur@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 23, 2009 16:25 EDT