Southwest Airlines, feeling the competitive pinch of United Airlines’ low-fare West Coast shuttle operation, Thursday reported its fourth-quarter profits declined 47 percent.
Elk Grove Township-based United started its shuttle Oct. 1 to compete with Southwest on short-haul routes, primarily in California.
Dallas-based Southwest, the principal tenant at Midway Airport, reported that net income for the quarter fell to $20.3 million, or 14 cents a share, from $38.4 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.9 percent, to $626.2 million.
For all of 1994, Southwest had net income of $179.3 million, or $1.22 a share, up from $154.2 million, or $1.05 a share, in 1993.
Also Thursday, Delta Air Lines said it lost $18 million, or 79 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31, after a loss of $141 million, or $3.36 a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined 1 percent, to $2.9 billion.
