Travel News

Airline Industry Recovery Continues: Traffic Up, Number Of Empty Seats Down

Locations in this article:  Dallas, TX Seattle, WA

Airplane at the Gate - Airline Industry Recovery ContinuesSeveral American air carriers reported Friday that they filled a higher percentage of seats in November than in the same time period last year, another indicator of the airline industry’s gradual recovery.

American Airlines reported this morning that it was able to fill 80.4 percent of its seats last month. The increase is a slight bump over last year when American was able to fill 79.6 percent of its seats.

In addition to the increase in capacity, American’s traffic increased by 4.3 percent with the largest increases being seen on Pacific routes.

Flights in the Pacific increased by 21.4 percent, and Latin American routes also received a bump over last year, with traffic increasing 8.3 percent.

American’s regional partner, American Eagle, saw traffic gains as well this year. Traffic soared up 18.1 percent and capacity rose by 14 percent for the Fort Worth-based company. American Eagle saw 72.9 percent of its seats filled in November up 2.5 percent over November 2009.

Other American airlines posted similarly rosy capacity reports.

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US Airways reported record loads last month with 80.6 percent of all seats filled by passengers, an increase of 3.3 percent over last year. The airline saw traffic jump up by 7.8 percent as well.

Budget airline AirTran Airways increased traffic by 6.6 percent and capacity by 1.4 percent. AirTran’s planes were filled to 80.6 percent of capacity, up 3.9 points.

Some of the biggest increases, however, were seen by Alaskan Airlines, which said that its November traffic was up by 15.5 percent. Capacity was also up in a big way with around a 10 percent increase over 2009, and 80.6 percent of all seats being filled last month.

Airline industry analysts expect that most major carriers will announce profits in the fourth quarter of this year with big gains in 2010 over the swan dive the industry took in 2008 and 2009.

By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com.

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