AirTran Holdings, Inc., (AAI) the parent company of Airtran Airways seems to be the big winner here. Their traffic, measured by revenue passenger miles (RPMs), grew by 25.4 percent on an increase of 26.9 percent in capacity. Their load factor decreased to 75.4 percent in August 2006, compared to 76.3 percent in August 2005.
"We are pleased with continued strong traffic growth and the efforts of the nearly 7,800 AirTran Airways crew members who continue to deliver a value product to our customers every day," said Bob Fornaro, AirTran Airways' president and chief operating officer.
The world's largest airline, American Airlines, had a slight up tick in passenger load factor to 81.9 percent, up 0.4 percent over a year ago August. The parent company of the airline, AMR Corp., (AMR) said domestic traffic for the airline dipped amid their cut in flights but their international traffic swung up. Delta Air Lines, which continues to reorganize itself saw passenger load factors remaining flat as compared to last year. Their capacity decreased domestically but their international service capacity shot up dramatically as they continue to expand to new destinations.
Southwest Airlines Co., (LUV) which is the largest US low cost carrier saw a few points gained on load factor from a year ago August, but said that security scares in mid August from London actually hurt them too.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Beth Harbin said, "We were impacted in the month by the security event. We are hoping it is a short-term blip ... but we don't know that yet."
Numbers at US Airways Group, Inc. (LCC) slid on both RPMs and load factors. The passenger load factor for August was 80.6 percent versus 81.0 percent in August 2005. The airline however is is great shape.
UAL Corp., (UAUA) the parent company of United Airlines reported an August passenger load factor of 83.5 percent. Total scheduled revenue passenger miles increased in August by 1.5 percent on a capacity increase of 3.2 percent in scheduled available seat miles (ASMs) compared to the same period in 2005. The airline has been expanding and reducing flights still even after coming out of bankrutcy in Feb.
Overall the airlines are still running fairly full planes. If they continue to run fuller planes it will be more likely that they will turn profits but it the next few months are highly critical as they tend to be slower travel periods for the airlines.
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