Alaska Air posts Q4 loss on higher expenses

(Reuters) - Alaska Air Group, the operator of the Boeing plane that suffered a mid-air incident earlier this month, said on Thursday that it swung to a fourth-quarter loss, from a year-ago profit, hurt by an increase in fuel and labor expenses.

The airline's press statement, however, did not give details on the financial impact from the more-than-two-week grounding of Boeing's 737 MAX 9 aircraft after a cabin panel fell off during a flight on Jan. 5, leaving a rectangular-shaped hole in a jet full of passengers and necessitating an emergency landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the grounding on Wednesday but the U.S. aviation regulator also barred Boeing from expanding production of its best-selling 737 MAX narrowbody planes, which is expected to have wide-ranging effects across the industry.

Alaska executives are set to address investors and analysts later in the day. The airline placed orders for 42 737-10 and 10 737-9 jets in 2022, as part of a plan to sunset Airbus aircraft by the end of 2023.

Alaska and United Airlines together account for 70% of Boeing's MAX 9 fleet and had been forced to cancel thousands of flights in the wake of the incident.

Alaska said it expects to bring first the few planes back into service on Friday and that it discovered and immediately corrected a minor finding on one 737-900ER plane after an FAA-recommended inspection as part of its scrutiny of Boeing.

The groundings had no impact on the company's results for the October-December quarter during which its revenue rose nearly 3% to $2.55 billion due to strong travel demand.

However, an increase in labor and fuel-related costs pushed Alaska to a loss of $2 million, or 2 cents per share, for the quarter, from a profit of $22 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago.

(Reporting by Mehr Bedi and Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)