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Southwest says passenger traffic grew 1.5 percent in April

Southwest Airlines said passenger traffic rose 1.5 percent in April as the Dallas-based carrier increased capacity by 4.1 percent.

Its load factor dropped 2 percentage points to 77.8 percent in April. Unit revenues also declined in the four to five percent range, the carrier said.

-Andrea Ahles

US Airways says passenger traffic up 4.4 percent in April

US Airways reported that passenger traffic in April grew 4.4 percent as the carrier increased its capacity by 3.1 percent.

The Tempe-based airline's load factor also rose 1.1 percentage points to 83.6 percent for the month.

Unit revenues, however, declined 4 percent compared to April 2012, said US Airways president Scott Kirby.

"Despite the unpredictable challenges that were created by the sequester-related furloughs of Federal Aviation Administration empoyees, our 32,000 team members did an outstanding job of taking car of our customers," Kirby said. "We are pleased that the situation is resolved and we have returned to a more normal operating environment."

-Andrea Ahles

AMR says passenger traffic in March up 1.0 percent

American Airlines' parent company, AMR Corp., said its consolidated passenger traffic for March rose 1.0 percent as the Fort Worth-based carrier kept capacity essentially flat.

Its consolidated load factor rose 0.7 percentage points to 82.7 percent compared to March 2012, AMR said.

The company's traffic growth in March came due to increased international passenger traffic, which was up 4.4 percent as AMR added 3.4 percent more capacity to its international routes.

Domestic traffic, however, dropped 1.3 percent in March as it cut capacity in its domestic network by 2.5 percent.

AMR said it expects unit revenues for March to grow slightly, up 0.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest says passenger traffic rose 4.0 percent in March

Southwest Airlines said its passenger traffic grew 4.0 percent in March as the Dallas-based carrier increased its capacity by 3.8 percent.

Its load factor also rose 0.2 percentage points to 82.0 percent.

However, Southwest said it expects its unit revenues to be about flat compared to March 2013.

-Andrea Ahles

US Airways says passenger traffic grew 5.2 percent in March

US Airways reported its consolidated passenger traffic rose 5.2 percent in March as the carrier increased capacity by 3.3 percent.

Its consolidated load factor was up 1.6 percentage points to 85.6 percent for the month.

However, its unit revenues were flat compared to March 2012. US Airways blamed lower "close-in demand" due to the federal government sequester budget cuts.

-Andrea Ahles

AMR reports 1.1 percent decline in passenger traffic for February

AMR Corp. said consolidated passenger traffic at American Airlines and American Eagle dropped 1.1 percent in February as the Fort Worth-based carrier cut capacity by 4.4 percent.

As a result of fewer flights, AMR said its load factor rose 2.6 percentage points to 77.9 percent, a record for the month of February.

Most of the capacity cuts were in its domestic network as capacity was down 5.0 percent. Passenger traffic declined 1.3 percent compared to February 2012.

International traffic decreased slightly to 0.8 percent with capacity down 3.8 percent in February.

Unit revenues at AMR increased an estimated 4.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

-Andrea Ahles

Southwest says passenger traffic dropped 2.3 percent in February

Passenger traffic at Southwest Airlines declined 2.3 percent in February as the Dallas-based carrier cut capacity by 3.1 percent.

The airline said its load factor rose slightly, up 0.6 percentage points to 75.2 percent compared to February 2012.

Unit revenues increased about 2 percent when compared to the same period last year, Southwest said.

-Andrea Ahles

US Airways reports 2.4 percent increase in passenger traffic in February

US Airways said consolidated passenger traffic increased 2.4 percent in February as its network capacity dropped 1.2 percent compared to February 2012.

The Tempe-based carrier said its consolidated load factor increased 2.7 percentage points to 80.6 percent for the month.

Unit revenues grew about 1 percent compared to the same period last year. However, the company said its unit revenues over the President's Day weekend were hurt by about four percentage points as several Northeast schools stayed in session during the holiday break to make up for days lost during Hurricane Sandy.

At its mainline operations, US Airways said passenger traffic rose 2.2 percent while capacity declined 1.2 percent. Its load factor for its mainline operations increased 2.7 percentage points to a record 81.0 percent for February.

-Andrea Ahles

AMR says passenger traffic dropped 3.7 percent in October

AMR Corp. said its passenger traffic dropped 3.7 percent in October as the company cut flights across its network.

Capacity declined 3.4 percent and its load factor decreased 0.3 percentage points to 82.3 percent for the month. Most of the flight cuts came in its domestic network where capacity was down 5 percent and traffic dropped 6 percent when compared to last October.

The Fort Worth-based parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle said unit revenues increased 0.4 percent for the month. It added that if it weren't for the operational slowdown in the beginning of the month, which American partly blamed on pilots filing more maintenance requests, its unit revenues would have grown 3.1 percent.

-Andrea Ahles

 

Southwest October passenger traffic drops 2.4 percent

Southwest Airlines said its passenger traffic declined 2.4 percent in October as the carrier decreased its capacity by 1.6 percent.

The Dallas-based airline said its load factor also dropped 0.7 percentage points to 80.7 percent when compared to the October 2011.

Passenger revenue per available seat mile increased about 5 percent, Southwest said.

-Andrea Ahles