INDIANAPOLIS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 22, 2002—Amtran, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMTR), parent company of American Trans Air, Inc. (ATA), today reported its results for the three months ended March 31, 2002.

First Quarter Financial Results:

Amtran`s net income available to common shareholders was $1.5 million, or $0.12 per share (diluted), in the first quarter of 2002. In comparison, the company had a net loss to common shareholders of $4.8 million, or $0.42 per share (basic and diluted) in the first quarter of 2001.

Total operating revenues for the first quarter of 2002 were $330.6 million, a 4.9% decrease compared with the same quarter in 2001. Scheduled service revenues decreased 1.8% to $208.3 million. Charter service revenues decreased 5.4% to $96.8 million. Total operating expenses decreased 8.4% to $320.5 million. The company reported an operating income of $10.1 million, compared with an operating loss of $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2001.

President`s Comments:

John Tague, Amtran`s president and chief executive officer, commented: “The extraordinary effort of our employees and the loyalty of our customers has allowed Amtran to produce a first quarter profit in a very difficult airline environment. We were certainly not immune to the weakness of the industry`s revenue performance in the first quarter of 2002; however, the efficiency and reliability of our new fleet helped us to reduce our unit cost by over 12%.”

“Looking forward, we expect the cost savings attributable to our new fleet to continue. However, we also expect the industry`s weak revenue performance will continue to impact ATA. Our scheduled service unit revenue decline has not been as precipitous as that of the industry, but we are obviously not where we should, or want to, be either.”

First Quarter Operating Results:

System-wide revenue passenger miles (RPMs) increased 3.8% to 3.03 billion, and available seat miles (ASMs) increased 4.7% to 4.31 billion compared with 2001. For Amtran, total revenue per available seat mile (RASM) was 7.68 cents in the first quarter of 2002, down 9.1% compared with 2001. Cost per available seat mile (CASM) was 7.44 cents, a decrease of 12.5%.

For Amtran`s scheduled service, RPMs increased 3.5% to 2.18 billion, ASMs increased 7.2% to 3.02 billion, and passenger load factor decreased 2.6 points to 72.3% compared with 2001. Scheduled service yield declined 5.1% to 9.54 cents and RASM decreased 8.4% to 6.90 cents.

For ATA`s charter service, ASMs decreased 0.5% to 1.28 billion; and block hours flown increased 7.0% to 12,410 compared with 2001. Charter RASM decreased 4.9% to 7.55 cents. ATA flew 18 subservice block hours in the first quarter of 2002, compared with 53 block hours in 2001.

The company`s unit fuel costs declined 35.5% in the first quarter compared with the same period last year as fuel prices declined 24.3% and the new Boeing 737-800s achieved an even better fuel efficiency than anticipated.

— During the first quarter, ATA opened seven new gates at Chicago-Midway Airport, five of which are at ATA`s new home on the A Concourse— In February, ATA began utilizing its international facilities at Chicago-Midway with scheduled service to Aruba, Cancun, Grand Cayman and Guadalajara— In March, the company announced that it was following the industry`s position and would no longer pay base commissions for tickets issued by travel agents in the United States. The company expects that its commission expense will decline by approximately $10 million through the remainder of the year. 

— During the quarter, ATA added four new Boeing 737-800s and two new Boeing 757-300s to its fleet and continued to retire both its Lockheed L-1011s and Boeing 727-200s. The last Boeing 727-200 will leave ATA`s service in May— Recently, ATA announced new jet service between Chicago-Midway and Charlotte and between Indianapolis and Los Angeles— Amtran`s wholly owned subsidiary Chicago Express announced service to Moline, Toledo and Flint from Chicago-Midway— On April 16, the company announced that it would provide four new Boeing 737-800 aircraft for use by Funjet Vacations, a subsidiary of Milwaukee-based The Mark Travel Corporation. 

— The company completed a privately placed EETC that will finance the remaining Boeing 737-800s that are to be delivered in 2002— During the first quarter, ATA achieved significant unit cost savings in salary, wages and benefits, fuel and maintenance principally as a result of the company`s new aircraft. These savings were partially offset by much higher insurance and security costs. 

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