Storms affect US airline traffic figures in Jan-2011
Delta Air Lines reported traffic results for Jan-2011 showing a 2.3% increase in system traffic on a 4.2% increase in capacity. Load factor decreased 1.4 ppts to 75.2%.
Domestic traffic decreased 1.7% year-on-year on a 0.5% decrease in capacity. Domestic load factor decreased 0.9 ppts to 74.9%. International traffic increased 8.3% year over year on an 11.4% surge in capacity, and load factor decreased 2.2 ppts to 75.8%.
US Airways Group reported mainline revenue passenger miles (RPMs) rose 3.9% in Jan-2011 to 4.5 billion, while mainline capacity fell 0.3% to 5.7 billion available seat miles (ASMs).
US Airways' President Scott Kirby said: "Our January consolidated (mainline and Express) passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) and total revenue per available seat mile each increased approximately 7% versus the same month last year. I would like to thank our 31,000 team members who continue to do an outstanding job of taking care of our customers during yet another challenging winter season. January brought more than its share of weather-related disruption and our employees worked tirelessly to quickly and safely restore operations at our hubs in Philadelphia and Charlotte as well as in other affected cities."
AirTran Airways, reported fresh records for RPMs and load factor for the month of January. Traffic grew by 0.6% to more than 1.3 billion RPMs, while load factor rose 2.8% to 74.8%. ASMs were down 3.2% due to the winter storms.
Investors liked Delta's report, but marked US Airways down.
Selected North American airlines daily share price movements (% change): 03-Feb-2011
