Things in the Sky

First, let me apologize for this week’s short and hurried posts, as I am in the midst of final exams. Fortunately, I’ll be all done on Monday next week!

AirTran’s results were pretty good – a 0.3% increase in RPMs paired with a 7.9% capacity cut (in terms of ASMs) increased the carrier’s load factor by 6.5 points.

Meanwhile, Allegiant continues to outperform the industry with a 34% increase in RPMs and a 29.8% increase in ASMs. The airline’s April load factor went up 2.8 points to 90.3 percent. Wow.

United’s results weren’t as great. The only portion of its flying to see an increase in RPMs was its regional flying, which makes sense as the airline will have to rely more and more on its regional flying as it cuts down the 737 fleet. The carrier’s load factor in North America, however, went up 1.4 points due to a 12.9% reduction in ASMs.

Finally, Alaska also saw a load factor increase – 2.0 points, as the carrier’s decrease in ASMs was greater than the decrease in RPMs.

Unlike Continental, these traffic reports don’t provide any clues about RASM.