Record Passenger Loads

[USA320Pilot]

Record Passenger Loads

ARLINGTON (theHub.com) - With Spring Break under way, combined with the start of Easter Week travel, US Airways enjoyed near-full flights over the weekend and its first taste of the busy spring and summer travel months to come. In fact, the past few days marked three of just 13 days that US Airways has exceeded a 90 percent load factor, since the company began tracking that data in 1987.

June 30, 2000, was the first time that US Airways exceeded a 90 percent load factor, with 90.9 percent. Since then, the company posted a new high on Dec. 1, 2002 (the Sunday after Thanksgiving), with 92.3 percent. On Saturday, March 19, US Airways had a mainline load factor of 91.1 percent, the second highest and pushing the June 2000 statistic into third place. Friday’s loads of 90.8 percent tied with March 13, 2004, for fourth place in the company’s load factor annals. Sunday saw load factors of 90.1 percent, still bringing up an impressive 11th place.

Employees across the system adroitly met the tasks at hand over the weekend. We exceeded a 99 percent departure completion factor on all three days. With no mainline flights canceled on Saturday, US Airways completed 100 percent of its mainline departures. Loads again are expected to exceed 90 percent over the course of the next week, and the same employee effort will be needed to meet the various demands of peak travel days.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[E-TRONS]

Nice try Capt. Even with that load factor UAIR continues to lose money <_< .

As someone on this forum would say, "It's the fares stupid!"

 

[fr8tmastr]

That brings up a question. Is it possible to know if U made any money over just this weekend? I would be really curious to know if a 90% load factor is enough.

 

[deltawatch]

Maybe if we reduce the mainline fleet down to 25 planes we will see a 100% load factor.

 

[wings396]

The phrase " Made Money" and US don't go together. According to the Brains in CCY, there were some flights that required OVER a 100% L/F to make a profit. With fares the way they are today, I wouldn't doubt that applied to most, if not all of the system. Fuel is going up, and fares are going lower. Wonder why they are losing their shirts???

 

[autofixer]

Wear and tear on the planes. Trashed cabins, max thrust take offs, lower cruise altitutes, trashed boarding areas; were is the trade off point at historically low fares?

 

[Art at ISP]

Nice try Capt. Even with that load factor UAIR continues to lose money <_< .

As someone on this forum would say, "It's the fares stupid!"

[post="257690"][/post]​

In my business, I once had a customer who was undercutting everyone else on price..selling items below cost. I asked how he could do that, and he looked me straight in the face and said, "It's okay, if I sell 100 I will make money."

He must be working for the airlines today..........

 

[whlinder]

90% LF should be above breakeven (but possibly not by much). US is in trouble, but they aren't FlyI.

 

[Hope777]

LOAD FACTOR does not mean a damm thing. The Fine Captains Headline should read, RECORD LOW YIELDS and RECORD OIL PRICES translates to RECORD LOSSES. Not to mention End of Month Crew Problems, not Enough Aircraft Yada Yada Yada.....
And Captain, you still have Two crew members up front, the F/A's still have FAA minimums and the FRONT LINE EMPLOYEES ARE STILL WORKING SHORT. The Company has not brought in any extra Kiosks to handle the RECORD LOADS nor are there enough FSA's to load the Aircraft in a timely manor.

 

[Flufdriver]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I think you all are really jumping on USA320Pilot's thread. All of you start jumping in about yeild, making money, record oil prices and making money and U don't go together. Nowhere in his thread did he try to relate LF and making money and clear skies ahead hype. ALL he was stateing was that we had record load factors last week, not comparing it to NOTHING. I think we should simply read what the post was really intended to relay...we had record load factors...NOT "Did we make any money" I atleast looked at it that the traveling public "still" has some faith in us to get them from "A to "B" and with any hope there bags get there to. Atleast if we are hauling people we have a half chance of generating very needed revenue until we re-organize and point the ship in the right direction!!

WE JUST HAULED A LOT OF PEOPLE...that's all!! And that's a good thing right now!!!

 

[MiAAmi]

Everyone has record load factors right now not just US. Good for you anyway!

 

[BoeingBoy]

90% LF should be above breakeven (but possibly not by much). US is in trouble, but they aren't FlyI.

[post="257844"][/post]​

BTS figured 90.4% to breakeven in 3Q04. No idea how it's changed since.

Jim

 

[whlinder]

yikes. I was going off some data from an article in Airline Business, I think. I have it at work and will double check tomorrow.

Wouldn't have another round of concessions kicked in since then though?

 

[sfb]

BTS figured 90.4% to breakeven in 3Q04. No idea how it's changed since.

As a very rough approximation, you can take the 4th quarter mainline CASM and divide it by the 4th quarter mainline yield to get the break-even load factor (though this excludes other sources of revenue like cargo). With Q4 yield at 11.90 cents and CASM at 10.96 cents, the break-even load factor was 92%. It's unclear to me if costs will be lower for this quarter given that (1) fuel is even higher now and (2) the company had labor cost reductions in place for most of the last quarter. I honestly couldn't tell you where yields are, but assuming they are comparable to the 4th quarter, the company is close to break-even when running 90+% load factors. It's probably cash-positive on those days, at least.

 

[tadjr]

WE JUST HAULED A LOT OF PEOPLE...that's all!! And that's a good thing right now!!!

[post="257864"][/post]​

Too bad we didnt haul their bags too.
Its gotten so bad on some days from PHL that the manager has put a gag order on the baggage agents. When someone asks why their bags arent there they are to respond they dont know and will deliver them as soon as they arrive. If that isnt a good enough answer for the customer he has instructed them to give his name and number as a contact.
For those flying around inside the planes things might appear to be getting better, but from those of us stuck at the airports every day, its going to take a lot to get the puppy back on track. :down: