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American Flies More Passengers: Regional Airline American Eagle's Passenger Count Was Up Almost 30 Percent.

Posted on: Saturday, 4 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By D.R. Stewart, Tulsa World, Okla.

Feb. 4--American Airlines reported modest passenger traffic growth last month while American Eagle, its regional airline partner, posted nearly a 30 percent increase from January 2005, officials said Friday. American, the world's largest airline, flew 11.03 billion revenue passenger miles in January, up 4.4 percent from January 2005, on a capacity increase of 1.9 percent. A revenue passenger mile is flying one revenue passenger one mile.

Domestically, American flew 7.19 billion revenue passenger miles last month, a 3.5 percent increase, on a capacity decrease of 0.1 percent. Internationally, American flew 3.84 billion revenue passenger miles, up 6.1 percent from January 2005, on a capacity increase of 5.8 percent. American's strongest international markets last month were in the Pacific, where it flew 481 million revenue passenger miles, a rise of 26.3 percent, on a capacity increase of 27.8 percent. Systemwide, American's load factor -- the percentage of seats occupied by revenue passengers -- was 75.1 percent in January, up 1.8 points from January 2005. Domestically, American's load factor last month was 75.8 percent, up 2.6 points from the same month last year. Internationally, American's load factor was 73.7 percent, up 0.2 points. American boarded 7.8 million passengers last month, a 4.6 percent increase from the same period last year. American Eagle flew 669.6 million revenue passenger miles in January, a 28.3 percent increase, on a capacity increase of 19 percent. American Eagle's load factor last month was 66.1 percent, up 4.7 points from January 2005. It boarded 1.59 million passengers in January, up 13.8 percent. In a report released late Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, American's on-time performance improved in 2005 while that of most of its competitors worsened from a year earlier. In 2005, American's flights arrived on schedule 76.9 percent of the time, up slightly from its 2004 on-time arrival rate of 76.8 percent, DOT officials said. American's performance earned it a fifth-place on-time ranking among the major airlines. Last year, American ranked seventh.

"We always want to do better," American spokesman Tim Smith said. "We've made a lot of progress in a variety of areas of our operations." The DOT survey found that on-time performance worsened at most carriers. Customer service suffered, officials said, as more flights caused airport congestion and load factors rose to record levels. American received more overall complaints and lost more bags last year than in 2004, the survey found. DOT received 25 percent more complaints than it did a year earlier. The figures represent a fraction of the total because the government does not track complaints filed with the airlines. Data show that low-cost carriers ranked higher than legacy carriers in on-time performance. ATA and America West ranked first and second, respectively, while Southwest Airlines, which ranked first in 2004, fell to third. A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 14 minutes of its scheduled arrival. ------------

D.R. Stewart 581-8451 don.stewart@tulsaworld.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, Tulsa World, Okla.

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Source: Tulsa World

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