DALLAS—Continental Airlines Inc., the fourth-largest US carrier, said revenue for each seat flown a mile rose as much as 4.5 percent in June.

The increase in so-called unit revenue was in a range of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent from a year earlier, Houston-based Continental said Tuesday in a statement. The results are for the airline’s main jet operations and exclude regional carriers.

The June result fell short of a forecast for an increase of 6 percent to 7 percent by Michael Linenberg, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst. Kevin Crissey, a UBS Securities Llc. analyst, forecast an increase of 4.5 percent. Investors and analysts watch the reports because Continental is one of the few US carriers that provide monthly financial data.

Carriers are raising revenue by boosting fares and fees to help offset jet-fuel prices which have almost doubled in the past year. US airline-industry losses may reach a record $13 billion in 2008, the Air Transport Association has said.

Continental on July 11 will detail second-quarter costs related to its plan to cut US capacity 11 percent, retire 67 planes and eliminate 3,000 jobs in response to the record jet-fuel prices, the airline said. The carrier also will discuss gains from its $156-million sale of stock in Copa Holdings SA and the sale of aircraft.

Continental will have additional costs in the third quarter and beyond related to the capacity reductions, including lease expenses for grounded aircraft and severance payments. The carrier said it could not yet estimate the amount of the costs.

Including regional carriers, Continental’s June unit revenue rose in a range of 4 percent to 5 percent, the airline said.

Traffic, or miles flown by paying passengers, fell 0.9 percent in June, excluding regional partners, Continental said. The average percentage of seats filled fell 2 points to 84.1 percent as the airline increased capacity 1.4 percent.

Continental said it ended the second quarter with $3.41 billion in unrestricted cash and short-term investments. The amount includes proceeds from the sale of 11 million shares of Class B stock and from a credit line to finance deposits on new aircraft. (Bloomberg)

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