OMA Reports 5.2% Increase In August 2010 Passenger Traffic

MONTERREY, Mexico, Sept. 9, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, S.A.B. de C.V., known as OMA (Nasdaq:OMAB) (BMV:OMA), reports that terminal passenger traffic at its 13 airports increased 5.2% in August 2010, as compared to August 2009. Domestic traffic increased 4.2%, and international traffic rose 11.7%.

Of total traffic, 97.0% was commercial aviation, and 3.0% was general aviation.

	Aug-09	Aug-10	Change %	Jan-Aug 2009	Jan-Aug 2010	Change %
Domestic	896,044	933,857	4.2	6,641,147	6,596,275	(0.7)
International	132,696	148,232	11.7	1,271,355	1,346,004	5.9
OMA Total	1,028,740	1,082,089	5.2	7,912,502	7,942,279	0.4
* Terminal passengers: includes passengers on the three types of aviation (commercial, charter, and general aviation), and excludes passengers in transit.

Domestic traffic increased at nine airports. Growth at the Monterrey, Chihuahua, Tampico, and San Luis Potosi airports was noteworthy. In Monterrey, traffic increased principally on the routes to Cancun and Mexico City. In Chihuahua, traffic grew principally on the routes to Guadalajara and Mexico City. Tampico and San Luis Potosi traffic grew principally on the routes to Monterrey. Traffic at the other four group airports decreased; the most affected was Torreon, with a reduction on the Mexico City route.

International traffic increased at six airports, with Monterrey and San Luis Potosi showing noteworthy increases. Monterrey benefitted from increases in traffic to Houston, Atlanta, Miami, and Las Vegas. San Luis Potosi benefitted from an increase in passenger traffic to Dallas. International traffic decreased most in Zacatecas, where the suspension of operations of Mexicana de Aviacion affected the route to Chicago, and in Zihuatanejo, where there was a reduction in traffic to Los Angeles.

The total number of flight operations (takeoffs and landings) in the month increased 14.3% as compared to the prior year period. Domestic flights rose 12.2%, and international flights rose 31.8%.

There were a number of events during the month related to the airlines Mexicana de Aviacion, Click Mexicana, and Mexicana Link, which make up Grupo Mexicana. The negative effect on traffic resulting from the bankruptcy filing by Mexicana de Aviacion on August 3d and the suspension of operations by all three airlines on August 28th was more than offset by the growth in traffic on other airlines and general aviation. Traffic carried by Grupo Mexicana airlines decreased by 64,853 passengers as compared to August 2009, while traffic carried by all others increased 118,202.

1 2 Next › Last »