(RTTNews) - Southwest Airlines Co.(LUV:
News ), on Thursday reported a modest 1.9% rise in traffic, and an 8.8 point increase in load factor for the month of October. Capacity for the month, however, shrank 9.4% from last year.
The U.S. airline industry has been hurt by a tumble in air travel demand. Airlines, including Southwest, have reduced capacity in order to cut costs and have been luring leisure travelers to fly by discounting tickets, even as they have witnessed a slump in business travel amid the recession. However, airlines are now showing signs of recovery as travel demand, including business travel, is picking up.
For the month, the Dallas, Texas-based carrier's traffic was 6.3 billion revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, compared to 6.2 billion RPMs in October 2008. Capacity for the month declined to 8.0 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, from 8.8 billion ASMs in the same period last year. Load factor for the month was 79.2%, compared to 70.4% in the prior-year period.
For September, Southwest had reported an 8.8% rise in traffic, and a 11.3 point increase in load factor. Capacity, however, dipped 7.8%, compared to the previous year.
Southwest said passenger revenue per ASM is estimated to have increased in the 1% range as compared to October 2008.
Year-to-date, traffic edged up 0.3% to 62.61 billion RPMs from 62.43 billion RPMs in the prior year period. Capacity for the period was 82.48 billion ASMs, down 4.8% from 86.63 billion ASMs, while load factor was up 3.8 points to 75.9% from 72.1% in the year ago period.
On October 15, the company reported a net loss for the third quarter that narrowed from the year-ago period, helped by lower expenses. Looking ahead, the discount carrier said it anticipates cost pressures to continue and currently expects unit costs for the fourth quarter, excluding fuel and special items, to exceed unit costs incurred during the third quarter.
LUV is currently trading at $8.37, up $0.17 or 2.07%, on a volume of 3.92 million shares on the NYSE.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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