Frontier Airlines Boosts Outlook

Shares of Frontier Airlines (FRNT Quote) were up more than 9% around midday Monday after the company predicted its quarterly earnings will come in above consensus estimates due to a spike in air travel in June.

Revenue passenger miles for the airline jumped 39.5% in June compared with last year. It carried 41.8% more passengers, and its load factor of 75.6% was the highest in the airline's nine-year history. As a result, Frontier said it would break even or earn up to 5 cents a share for its fiscal first quarter of 2004, which ends on June 30. Those estimates exclude government aid received during the quarter as a result of the Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Analysts' estimates had called for the airline to lose 14 cents a share for the quarter, according to Thomson First Call. ...