(LUV) Southwest Airlines Reports Higher Traffic

December 8th, 2009

Last week Southwest Airlines (LUV) reported that its November traffic has jumped 11.7% over the same month last year. Load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled with passengers, in September rose to 76.5% from 63.2% in the prior-year period. Southwest said paying customers flew 5.88 billion miles last month, up from 5.26 billion in November 2008.

Available seat miles, or capacity, fell 7.7% to 7.7 billion from 8.3 billion in the year-ago period. The airline plans to reduce 2009 available seat miles in the 5-6% range versus last year.

During the third quarter earnings, the airline reported a 9.0% increase in mainline traffic and $5.8 billion revenue. Amid weak demand for business travel, Southwest continues to stimulate traffic with more discounted and promotional fares.

Though the November results pointed to a strong end for the year, management doesn’t expect very profitable fourth quarter results, based on weak travel demand and fuel price volatility.

Peer AMR Corporation (AMR), the parent company of American Airlines, said that its November traffic rose 11.7% to 635 million revenue passenger miles from a year ago, with capacity increasing 6.8% to 901 million available seat miles. US Airways Group (LCC), however, reported a 1.6% fall in traffic to 4.35 billion revenue passenger miles.

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(LUV) Southwest Airlines Reports Higher Traffic

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