US Airways' yearly, quarterly losses worse than a year ago.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Tom Belden

PHILADELPHIA _ US Airways Group Inc., suffering from higher fuel prices and dwindling revenue _ despite flying more passengers _ said Monday that its fourth-quarter and full-year losses increased from a year earlier.

Philadelphia's dominant airline lost $236 million in the quarter and $611 million for the year, compared with a $98 million loss in 2003's fourth quarter and a $174 million loss for all of 2003.

The losses came despite the airline's lowering its labor costs as it tries through bankruptcy protection to turn itself into a low-cost carrier.

Along with other older airlines, US Airways has been under growing pressure from a steady expansion of low-fare carriers along the East Coast. In addition to Southwest Airlines, which started flights to Philadelphia in May, AirTran Airways, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways and a newly formed carrier, Independence Air, increased service last year in direct competition with US Airways.

US Airways said its revenue dipped in the fourth quarter, despite passengers flying more miles than in the last three months of 2003. Including the US Airways Express commuter service, the airline carried 14.1 million passengers in the fourth quarter, a 4.4 percent year-over-year increase.

Total revenue in the quarter fell to $1.66 billion from $1.76 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003. The airline's revenue for each mile flown by a fare-paying passenger was down 12 percent in the quarter, reflecting a drop in ticket prices.