US Airways' Feb. Traffic Rises

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Jul 23, 2004
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US Airways' Feb. Traffic Rises

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- US Airways Group Inc. said Tuesday its February traffic rose 1.9 percent on stronger domestic traffic, as overall capacity expanded by 0.9 percent.

US Airways said overall traffic grew to 4.51 billion revenue passenger miles from 4.43 billion in the prior year's February. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Domestic traffic rose 3.2 percent to 3.87 billion revenue passenger miles, offsetting declines in European and Latin American traffic.

Overall capacity expanded to 5.92 billion available seat miles from 5.86 billion, as gains domestically and to Europe offset less capacity to Latin America.

Occupancy improved to 76.3 percent from 75.6 percent.

So far this year, traffic is up 3.3 percent to 9.39 billion revenue passenger miles on a 0.8 percent capacity gain to 12.56 billion available seat miles. Occupancy is up to 74.7 percent from 72.9 percent.

US Airways shares rose 14 cents to $50.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.


Southwest Air warns of softening demand


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - News) on Tuesday said demand for air travel was soft last month and the trend would continue in March, suggesting first-quarter earnings may be weaker than expected.

"We interpret this as a warning as to the unachievability of first-quarter consensus," JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker said in a note.

He lowered his estimate for Southwest's first-quarter earnings to 6 cents a share from 8 cents a share. Analysts, on average, are forecasting earnings of 9 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Southwest, the leading U.S. discount carrier, said load factor -- the percentage of airplane seats filled with paying passengers -- fell 1.7 points to 66.8 percent in February, because of weaker demand related to harsh winter weather in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest. The softness has persisted.

"Bookings for March are a little soft, suggesting our March 2007 load factor may fall below last year's record," Chief Executive Gary Kelly said in a statement.

JP Morgan's Baker said the weakness was a reflection of poor forecasting by Southwest rather than a sign of a broader drop-off in demand.

"We see little to suggest Southwest's warnings will spill over to other discount carrier(s)," he said.

Southwest has one of the lowest load factors in the industry. American Airlines (NYSE:AMR - News), for instance, had a February load factor of 76.5 percent, up 1.5 points from the same month last year.

But there are signs that demand is weakening. Delta Air Lines (Other OTC:DALRQ.PK - News), Northwest Airlines (Other OTC:NWACQ.PK - News), Alaska Airlines (NYSE:ALK - News), and AirTran Airways (NYSE:AAI - News) all posted declines in February load factors.

High load factors help airlines by allowing them to spread flight costs over more passengers. Packed planes also give airlines leeway to raise fares.