August a sluggish month for U.S. airlines

Posted Sep 6th 2009 3:10PM by Tom Johansmeyer
Filed under: Southwest Airlines (LUV), US Airways Group (LCC), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

August brought more misery to the airline industry in the United States. Seven of the country's nine largest carriers saw traffic drop, with only Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and JetBlue Airways Corp (NASDAQ: JBLU) bucking the trend. The continued upward climb of unemployment, tighter corporate budgets and sluggish demand for leisure travel has resulted in fewer passengers in seats.

JetBue was the only carrier not to report a drop in available seat miles (ASMs), the primary measure of airline productivity. Load factors, however, which indicate how full a plane is, tended to be higher, largely a result of flights that have been cut in an effort to reduce costs.

Delta (NYSE: DAL), the largest carrier in the world as a result of its merger with Northwest in 2008, reported its eighth monthly decline in a row. The airline is expected to cut capacity again in the fall. Traffic for US Airways (NYSE: LCC) was down almost 4% in August on capacity cuts of 3.8%. Its load factor was flat year-over-year.

Tags: airline industry, airline sector, airlines, dal, delta, inthenews, jblu, jetblue, lcc, luv, southwest airlines, us airways