American Airlines May Traffic, Capacity Rise; Load Factor Edges Down

(RTTNews) - American Airlines Group, Inc. (AAL) on Monday reported increases in capacity and traffic for the month of May, while load factor edged down from last year. The traffic results combine the results for AMR Corp. and US Airways Group.

Total revenue passenger miles or RPMs for the month of May, which indicate traffic, grew 2.1 percent from the year-ago period to 19.20 billion. This includes 1.7 percent growth in the Domestic business and a 2.2 percent increase in the International business. Mainline RPMs were 1.9 percent higher, while Regional RPMs reported a 3.7 percent increase.

Total capacity for May rose 2.4 percent to 22.87 billion available seat miles or ASMs. Capacity grew 3.0 percent in the Mainline business, while it declined 1.8 percent in the Regional business.

However, passenger load factor for the month edged down 0.3 percentage points from last year to 84.0 percent. Domestic load factor rose 0.8 percentage point to 87.3 percent, while International load factor declined 3.6 percentage points to 79.0 percent.

Based on two months of actual data and one month of forecast, American Airlines now projects second-quarter consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile or PRASM to increase about 5 percent to 7 percent from the year-ago period. Earlier, the company forecast second-quarter PRASM to increase about 4 to 6 percent from the year-ago period.

AAL closed Friday's trading at $43.88. In Monday's pre-market trades, the stock is up $0.12 or 0.27 percent to $44.00.