American Airlines February Traffic Edges Up, But Load Factor Down - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - American Airlines Group, Inc. (AAL) reported that its traffic in February 2014 slightly increased 0.5% from February 2013, on a capacity increase of 0.8%.

American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy and closed its $11 billion merger with US Airways Group Inc. in early December 2013 to form the world's biggest airline under the name American Airlines Group Inc.

The airline's total traffic for the month of February, measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs, edged up 0.5 percent to 15.08 billion from 15.09 billion in the same month last year.

Total capacity, measured in available seat miles or ASMs, also edged up 0.8 percent to 19.22 billion from 19.07 billion in the prior-year period.

Monthly total passenger load factor was 78.4 percent, down 0.3 points from 78.7 percent reported last year.

The company believes the weather-related cancellations had a slightly positive impact on unit revenue but had a larger negative impact on unit cost and first quarter profitability. The company expects to disclose an estimate of the one-time profitability impact in early April.

Despite these weather-related difficulties, unit revenue remains strong and the company continues to expect first quarter 2014 PRASM to be up approximately 2 percent to 4 percent versus first quarter 2013.