Texas Air Reports $72.8-Million Loss

Texas Air Corp. on Monday posted a third-quarter loss of $72.8 million.

Texas Air, the parent of Eastern Airlines and Continental Airlines, said the loss contrasted with earnings of $128.4 million in the same period a year ago. It attributed the poor performance to a slowdown by pilots and “an unworkable cost structure” at Eastern and continuing problems at Continental.

The loss included an already-announced deficit of $67.4 million at Eastern, Texas Air said. Continental’s losses totaled $10.2 million.

Texas Air said that Continental’s performance, although it resulted in a loss, reflected improvement from the airline’s substantial second-quarter shortfall. The losses have been attributed, in part, to the costs of integrating with People Express airlines.