INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Republic Airways reported a much smaller third-quarter profit as Midwest Airlines, purchased on July 31, lost money right away.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. reported a $3.3 million profit for the quarter, down from $17 million a year earlier. Midwest had a pretax loss of $15.9 million during the two months of the quarter it was owned by Republic.

Republic's profit worked out to 9 cents per share, down from 50 cents per share a year earlier.

REPUBLIC AWYS HLDGS INC  NASDAQ:RJET  Updated: 16:00 ET  6.80  -0.01

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting, on average, a profit of 29 cents per share.

Revenue fell 6.7 percent to $359.6 million, from $385.2 million a year earlier.

Except for Midwest (and now Frontier Airlines, purchased the day after the quarter closed on Sept. 30), Republic flies regional flights for hire by larger airlines.

It said its fixed-fee service revenue declined $99.7 million from a year ago. However, not counting fuel reimbursements, fixed-fee revenue dropped $17.6 million, or 6.2 percent, because of the removal of 22 planes that had been flown for Continental Airlines.

The company had $148.7 million in cash on Sept. 30, including $63.2 million in restricted cash.

Republic's shares rose 13 cents to $8.17 in after-hours trading after closing the regular session Wednesday at $8.04, down 13 cents.

11/04/09 20:29 © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.