Continental Airlines Load Factor Up in January

Continental Airlines has reported a January 2008 consolidated load factor of 76.8%, 0.5 points above the January 2007 consolidated load factor. The carrier reported a mainline load factor of 77.4%, 0.6 points above the January 2007 mainline load factor, and a domestic mainline load factor of 79.6%, 1.5 points above January 2007.

In January 2008, Continental flew 7.2 billion consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 9.4 billion consolidated available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a traffic increase of 2.9% and a capacity increase of 2.1% as compared to January 2007.

In January 2008, Continental flew 6.5 billion mainline RPMs and 8.4 billion mainline ASMs, resulting in a mainline traffic increase of 3.5% and a mainline capacity increase of 2.7% as compared to January 2007.

Domestic mainline traffic was 3.3 billion RPMs in January 2008, down 0.8% from January 2007, and domestic mainline capacity was 4.2 billion ASMs, down 2.7% from January 2007. For January 2008, both consolidated and mainline passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) are estimated to have increased between 9% and 10% compared to January 2007.

Continental’s regional operations had a January load factor of 72.5%, 0.2 points above the January 2007 load factor. Regional RPMs were 743.9 million and regional ASMs were 1,025.9 million in January 2008, resulting in a traffic decrease of 2.1% and a capacity decrease of 2.3% versus January 2007.