Continental Airlines said on Tuesday it expects to lose about USD$10 million to USD$12 million per month in revenues from a recent round of price cutting of domestic fares.

Continental said its January load factor rose to 75.3 percent, an increase of 4.9 percentage points from a year ago, with its mainline load factor rising by 4.7 points to 76.1 percent.

Delta's recent move to cut fares used mostly by business travelers ramped up increasingly cut-throat competition to lure passengers and spurred similar pricing moves by its competitors.

Continental estimated both consolidated and mainline passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) increased between 3.5 and 4.5 percent in January compared to the year earlier period.

For December 2004, consolidated RASM decreased 4 percent and mainline RASM fell 4.5 percent compared to last year.