Air New Zealand reports weak May traffic, mixed yields
Air New Zealand reported traffic rose just 1% in May-2011, as the Christchurch and Japan earthquakes significantly hit its long-haul passenger numbers, as has been the case in the preceding few months. Shares in Air New Zealand were up 0.9% yesterday, on a generally positive day of trading for Asia Pacific airline shares. Chinese and Indian carriers were up, while Skywest Australia jumped 5.7%.
Air New Zealand's long-haul business has been struggling due to the after effects of the earthquakes, but domestic and short-haul international market traffic performance is better. However, short-haul yields have been weak, down 2.6%, due partly to the introduction of the carrier's new "seats to suit" product. Long-haul and group-wide yields are performing better, up 4.3%, and have now returned to 2009 levels. After taking out currency effects, Air New Zealand group-wide yields were up 3.7%.
Air New Zealand traffic highlights for May-2011:
- Passenger numbers: 892,000, +1.0% year-on-year;
- Short-haul: 793,000, +2.5%;
- Domestic: 609,000, +2.1%;
- Tasman/Pacific: 184,000, +3.8%;
- Long-haul: 98,000, -9.3%;
- Asia/Japan/UK: 37,000, -12%;
- North America/UK: 61,000, -7.6%;
- Short-haul: 793,000, +2.5%;
- Passenger load factor: 78.5%, +0.9 ppt;
- Short-haul: 79%, +0.1 ppt;
- Domestic: 79%, -1.1 ppts;
- Tasman/Pacific: 78.9%, +0.6 ppt;
- Long-haul: 78.1%, +1.5 ppts;
- Asia/Japan/UK: 73.2%, +1.3 ppts;
- North America/UK: 81.2%, +1.3 ppts.
- Short-haul: 79%, +0.1 ppt;
Jet Airways reported the following traffic highlights in May-2011:
- Passenger numbers: 1.5 million, +16.9% year-on-year;
- Domestic: 1.0 million, +17%;
- International: 434,914, +16.8%;
- Passenger load factor: 79.8%, -1.3 ppts;
- Domestic: 79.8%, -2.7 ppts;
- International: 79.8%, -0.5 ppt.
Selected Asia Pacific airline share price movements (% change): 27-Jun-2011
