Orbitz Beats Street; Shares Soar 15%

Orbitz Worldwide increases its loss in the first quarter, but beats analysts' forecast sending shares soaring.

Author:: Jeanine Poggi
Publish date:: May 6, 2009 1:12 PM EDT

Orbitz Worldwide increases its loss in the first quarter, but beats analysts' forecast sending shares soaring.

Orbitz Worldwide

(OWW)

widened its loss in the first quarter, as bookings decreased 17% and writedowns hindered results.

Minus the write-downs, though, the company beat expectations, sending shares soaring 15% to $2.42 in afternoon trading.

Orbitz posted a loss of $336 million, or $4.02 a share, compared with a loss of $15 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding a charge related to the decline in value of its assets and stock price, the company earned 1 cent a share. Analysts expected a loss of 2 cents for the quarter.

Revenue decreased 14% to $188 million.

Orbitz's total bookings were $2.28 billion. Domestic bookings decreased 13%, and international bookings dropped 36%.

Travel companies are in a fierce pricing battle.

Expedia

(EXPE) - Get Report

ignited the competition when it removed booking fees on its flights through May 31. The company was following

Priceline.com

(PCLN)

, which canceled air-booking fees about two years ago.

As a result, last month Orbitz reduced the service fee it charges travelers to book hotel rooms on its Web site. The promotion will run until July 15.

Last week Expedia posted a 23% decline in its first quarter to $39.4 million, or 14 cents a share, from $51.3 million, or 17 cents a share, a year ago.