PlaneBuzz

Holy Moly Batman.

It's bad enough that we have the price of oil hitting new record highs today (107.60 as I post this, up an eye-opening 2.45 on the day). The surge in oil prices has sent shares of almost all airline stocks reeling -- again.

But one airline stock is really getting hammered today.

Shares of ExpressJet are now down about 17% -- sitting at about 1.86 a share -- after the airline reported earnings this morning.

The airline posted a loss of $31.7 million, or $0.60, compared with a profit of $22.8 million, or $0.39 cents per share, a year earlier. Its revenue rose 2.3% to $436 million from $426.4 million.

ExpressJet spent nearly $41 million last year in an effort to transition 69 aircraft that were under a previous agreement with Continental to branded flying. Continental withdrew the jets from its capacity-purchase agreement starting in December.

"Results reflect the enormous challenge this company was presented in redeploying 25 percent of its fleet within a six-month period and managing an increasingly challenging airline industry environment," CEO Jim Ream said in a statement.

For the full year, ExpressJet posted a loss of $70.2 million, or $1.31 per share, compared with a profit of $92.6 million, or $1.56 per share, in 2006.

Yeoow.

Not surprisingly, given the airline's increase in branded flying, the airline's fuel costs when through the roof during the fourth quarter. Fuel cost was up 70% over fourth quarter of 2006.

Ticker: (NYSE: XJT)

Technorati Tags: airline stocks, airlines, Continental Airlines, ExpressJet