Southwest Airlines Co. on Wednesday reported a 2.1 percentage points increase in load factor for the month of August, with a 6.4% rise in traffic to 7.12 billion from 6.69 billion in the same month last year, and a 3.7% increase in capacity from August 2009.
Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 3.7 percent to 8.7 billion from the August 2009 level of 8.3 billion. The load factor for the month rose 2.1 percentage points to 82.3 percent, compared to 80.2 percent for the same period last year.
For August 2010, passenger revenue per ASM is estimated to have increased in the 15 to 16 percent range as compared to August 2009.
For the eight months ended August 31, 2010, Southwest flew 52.0 billion RPMs, compared to 50.5 billion RPMs flown for the same period in 2009, an increase of 2.9 percent.
Available seat miles decreased 1.8 percent to 65.6 billion from the 2009 level of 66.8 billion. The year-to-date load factor was 79.3 percent, compared to 75.6 percent for the same period last year.
