US Airways Expects Earnings Below Forecasts

US Airways Group Inc. said it expects a first-quarter loss substantially larger than Wall Street had expected due to a falloff in business bookings and tight East Coast competition. US Airways, which has agreed to be bought by United Airlines parent UAL Corp. for about $4.3 billion, said the results will be “well below� the average analysts’ forecast of a first-quarter loss of $1.12 a share, but it did not give more details. Analysts had, on average, been expecting a loss of 5 cents a share for 2001. As corporations trim spending and the economy slows, the warning reflects conditions that apply to other major U.S. airlines, analysts said. Salomon Smith Barney airline analyst Brian Harris and Glenn Engel of Goldman Sachs cut their earnings outlook for the major U.S. airlines, including US Airways and UAL. Shares of Arlington, Va.-based US Airways fell $1.05 to close at $40.25 on the New York Stock Exchange, widening the gap with the $60 a share UAL plans to pay. Shares of Chicago-based UAL fell $3.04 to close at $35.01, also on the NYSE.