AirTran Airways reported net income of $52.7 million for 2007, more than triple a $14.7 million profit earned in the prior year, on a 22.1% boost in revenue to $2.31 billion. "We finished the year with a very strong revenue performance reflecting the high quality of our service and diversified network, which was especially important given the challenging operating environment and record high fuel costs in 2007," President and CEO Bob Fornaro said. AirTran has bucked the growth-averse US industry by building its network and significantly increasing capacity and touts its ability to keep nonfuel costs in check, noting that such expenses lowered for the sixth straight year. However, a 35.3% year-over-year increase in fuel costs in the fourth quarter contributed to a $2.2 million net loss for the period that nevertheless was narrowed from a net loss of $3.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Full-year expenses increased 17.3% to $2.17 billion and operating income of $137.9 million was more than triple the $40.9 million in 2006. Traffic grew 25% to 17.3 billion RPMs on a 19.4% lift in capacity to 22.69 billion ASMs, producing a load factor of 76.2%, up 3.4 points. Yield declined 3.1% to 12.71 cents as PRASM escalated 1.5% to 9.69 cents and CASM fell 1.7% to 9.67 cents. CASM excluding fuel lowered 2.6% to 6.03 cents. Senior VP-Planning Kevin Healy said the business environment in 2008 will "remain very challenging" but noted that "advance bookings and demand look strong and I am optimistic about our revenue performance going forward." Separately, AirTran announced an expansion of its Milwaukee service to feature new seasonal flights to Los Angeles (twice-daily from May 6), Seattle (daily from May 6), San Francisco (daily from May 6), Boston (twice-daily from May 21) and San Diego (daily from May 21). by Aaron Karp