Burdened by the heavy costs of reworking its airplane leases, United Airlines’ parent company reported a record $1.77 billion loss for the third quarter Monday to run its overall losses from nearly three years in bankruptcy to $9 billion.

UAL Corp. maintained that the huge charges are normal for a company nearing the end of a bankruptcy overhaul and pointed to a $165 million operating profit as evidence its restructuring is paying off.

“We have largely completed United’s restructuring work and we are on schedule to emerge from Chapter 11 in early February as we have announced,” CEO Glenn Tilton told employees in a recorded message.

Even so, it was the company’s 21st consecutive quarter in the red and the loss topped its previous record deficit of $1.47 billion for the fourth quarter of 2002, when it filed for bankruptcy.

The Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based company said the aircraft restructuring charges consisted of creditors’ claims on its planes after it rejected scores of leases and contracts in order to secure lower prices. It said the claims are still formally in the process of being settled for a fraction of those amounts.

Once those claims and others are accounted for, the company expects to report a large on-paper gain offsetting them when it exits bankruptcy; Chief Financial Officer Jake Brace said it could total $10 billion.

“This is very normal for bankruptcies … (and) has nothing to do with the operation of the business at all,” Brace said. “The industry still has a number of challenges, fuel costs chief among them, but we’re pleased with our results.”

Despite the continuing losses, analysts, too, say the nation’s No. 2 airline has largely accomplished what it needed to do in bankruptcy.

“They are seeing positive signs from the changes they’ve made in the last two years,” said George Novak, an airline consultant for The Metis Group in Washington, D.C. “Along with the rest of the industry, it doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods yet. But they’ve laid the groundwork for success.”

He said United’s biggest remaining challenge will be to “get the word out that United is strong and healthy and … there should be no hesitancy in making bookings on United.”

The net loss for the July-through-September period amounted to $15.26 per share and compared with a loss of $274 million, or $2.38 per share, a year earlier.

Operating revenues rose 8.1 percent to $4.7 billion from $4.3 billion.

Excluding the total of $1.8 billion in restructuring costs for the period, UAL said it would have had a net profit of $68 million. Operating earnings were $245 million better than the result from the third quarter of 2004. The company said it spent $405 million more on fuel in the fall quarter than a year earlier or the result would have been even better.

The lease restructuring costs made United’s net loss by far the largest of any U.S. airline to report third-quarter results, exceeding Northwest Airlines Corp.’s $475 million deficit. The parent firms of three carriers _ Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines _ all turned profits while American Airlines parent AMR Corp. had a $153 million loss.

Still to report are Delta Air Lines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc., which now includes the former America West. Both are scheduled to release results Nov. 9.

United has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since December 2002. It is forecasting a profit next year for the first time since 2000, although that is based on a business plan that envisions crude oil prices averaging $50 a barrel _ nearly $10 below the current level.

The company has lost $14.2 billion since last turning a profit in the second quarter of 2000.

Brace said the remaining challenges in bankruptcy consist mainly of the “nuts and bolts” of getting final approval for the company’s reorganization plan by creditors, a process that is to culminate with hearings in January.