American, US Airways Cite Strong Traffic
TEMPE, Ariz. (
) --
US Airways
(LCC)
said unit revenue increased 6% in November, a sign that the airline industry will likely continue to show positive growth.
The carrier said Friday that both passenger revenue per available seat mile and total revenue per available seat mile, which includes fee revenue, increased by 6%, compared with the same month a year earlier. US Airways was the first carrier to report November unit revenue.
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Mainline revenue passenger miles grew by 7.8% while mainline available seat miles grew by 3.4%. That reflected a record November load factor of 80.6%, up 3.3 points.
Also Friday,
American
(AMR)
reported an 82% load factor in November, up 1.3 points. American said RPMs grew by 2.6% on a capacity gain of 0.9%, another positive sign. American does not report monthly unit revenue.
In a Nov. 30 report, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Hunter Keay estimated US Airways PRASM growth of 5%. "We remain bullish on the demand environment through the holiday period and expect strong November results," he wrote.
However, in a report Friday morning, Soleil Securities analyst Jim Higgins said he was "mildly disappointed" by US Airways' PRASM because "we believed it had probably the best chance of any carrier to produce an upside surprise." Higgins said he retains a buy on US Airways, but said "it is our least favorite buy-rated stock."
In morning trading Friday, shares of US Airways were down 12 cents at $10.99 while American shares were down 10 cents at $8.35.
-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.
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Ted Reed