Traffic Slips at American Airlines

American Airlines flew 11.88 billion revenue passenger miles in May, a 2.9 percent decrease on a capacity decrease of 4 percent, compared with the same month last year, airline executives said. A revenue passenger mile is flying one paying passenger one mile.

American reported passenger mile decreases last month in every market except Latin America, where it flew 1.7 billion revenue passenger miles, a 0.5 percent increase over May 2006.

American’s load factor — the percentage of seats filled — in May was 81.7 percent, 1 point higher than May 2006. The airline boarded 8.45 million passengers in May, a 2 percent drop compared with the same month a year ago.

For the first five months of the year, American flew 56 billion revenue passenger miles, a 2.1 percent drop on a 3 percent decrease in capacity, compared with the same period of 2006.

American’s load factor in the first five months was 79.6 percent, 0.8 points higher than January-through-May 2006. The airline boarded 39.9 million passengers in the first five months of the year, a 1.8 percent drop from the same period a year ago.

American Eagle, the regional airline partner of American Airlines, flew 802.6 million revenue passenger miles in May, a 0.9 percent decrease on a 1.3 percent increase in capacity, compared with May 2006.

American Eagle’s load factor last month was 75.5 percent, 1.7 points below its load factor in May 2006. The regional carrier boarded 1.9 million passengers in May, a 2.3 percent drop compared with the same month last year.

For the first five months, American Eagle flew 3.58 billion revenue passenger miles, a 1.2 percent decrease with the same capacity as the first five months of 2006.

American Eagle’s load factor in the first five months was 71.6 percent, a drop of 0.8 points from a year ago. The regional airline boarded 8.52 million passengers January-through-May, a 1.7 percent decline compared with last year’s first five months.

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