US airlines all report growth in January; international demand growth outstrips domestic at all four majors
US airlines all report growth in January; international demand growth outstrips domestic at all four majors
The latest data from the leading US carriers shows that all of them reported traffic growth (measured by system RPMs – Revenue Passenger Miles) in January. For the second month in a row, the airlines have separated into two divisions regarding growth. Seven carriers (AirTran, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, United and US Airways) have reported system RPM growth of between 0% and 6%, while four carriers (Alaska Airlines, Allegiant, Hawaiian and Southwest) have all reported growth of between 13% and 20%.

Source: Airline websites NB: Continental and United figures merged under United in September 2010
A close look at the four remaining ‘legacy’ carriers (American, Delta, United, US Airways) reveals that all of them have seen international demand grow faster than domestic demand. In fact, American (-0.7%), Delta (-1.7%) and United (-2.3%) all saw domestic demand fall in January. Fortunately, international demand grew by 6.2% for American, 8.3% for Delta, and 2.8% for United. For American, the star regional performer was Latin America (+12.9%), for Delta it was the Pacific (+19.6%), and for United it was also the Pacific (+8.4%).
Eight of 11 airline report higher load factors in January
Although load factors in January typically are among the lowest of the year, eight of the 11 airlines analysed reported a rise in average load factor in January compared with the same month in 2010. The exceptions were American (down 0.4 percentage points), United (down 0.6 points) and Delta (down 1.4 points).

Source: Airline websites NB: Continental and United figures merged under United since September 2010
The biggest year-on-year load factor improvement was at JetBlue, which jumped 5.9 percentage points from 74.1% to 80%, while Southwest was up 3.9 percentage points from 72.1% to 76.0%.
US airline new route database
To keep up to date with all the latest new route developments of US airlines, please check our regularly updated, free, downloadable spreadsheet.
Comments
Comments are closed