Struggling with a worse-than-expected industrywide revenue slump, US Airways Group Inc. reported a $335 million third-quarter net loss yesterday and restated its need to cut costs deeper than once anticipated.

The loss of $4.92 per share follows an Aug. 11 bankruptcy filing and months of restructuring that has resulted in thousands of layoffs and flight reductions. Sales in the quarter fell 12 percent to $1.75 billion.

Though the loss was an improvement over last year's third-quarter deficit of $766 million, or $11.42 per share, the slow industry recovery prompted the Arlington, Va.-based airline to recently announce hundreds of additional layoffs.

An additional 55 US Airways employees at Baltimore-Washington International Airport will lose their jobs this month, according to a filing with the Maryland Department of Labor and Licensing. Those job cuts were part of a previous layoff announcement. The airline currently employs 237 at BWI, down from 2,293 just prior to last year's terrorist attacks.

US Airways, barely clinging to its position as the third-largest carrier at BWI, expects to employ about 32,000 by year's end, down from more than 46,000 before the Sept. 11 attacks. The carrier has cut about two-thirds of its flights at BWI in the past year and shuttered its crew base at the airport.

"They obviously still have a lot of work to do, but they seem to be doing it," said Jon Ash, an aviation consultant with Global Aviation Associates in Washington. "Clearly, a lot of [airlines] were making certain cuts predicated on the expectation of some improvement in yields later into 2002 and early 2003, and I think they are now concluding that those yield improvements are not there."

The industry as a whole lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter this year.

David Siegel, the airline's president and chief executive, blamed the difficulties in part on the threat of war with Iraq, higher fuel prices and a softening economy. That, combined with permanent changes in the industry's revenue outlook, no longer supports high operating costs, he said.

"While we accomplished much in the third quarter, we clearly have more to do to respond to this new reality," Siegel said.

The airline has extracted about $1.2 billion in annual cost savings from its labor unions, aircraft lessors and other vendors. The airline reported a 29 percent reduction in costs for the third quarter compared with the corresponding period a year ago. But management told creditors last week that it may need an additional $300 million to $400 million in annual savings in order to return to profitability.

The airline has to prove to federal officials that it can turn a profit in order to obtain a $900 million government loan guarantee for a $1 billion loan. The Air Transportation Stabilization Board has given conditional approval for the guarantee, which is a key component of the airline's restructuring plan.

Despite the disappointing results, analysts said they still think US Airways can emerge from bankruptcy early next year, as airline management has projected.

"Given the circumstances, it probably could have been a lot worse," Ash said of the third-quarter loss.