Airlines & Routes

Continental Airlines reported a December consolidated (mainline plus regional) load factor of 83.0%, 3.1 points above the December 2008 consolidated load factor. Consolidated traffic increased 6.0% and capacity increased 2.1% as compared to December 2008.

Emirates Airline is to start flights to Madrid, providing the only scheduled passenger service between Dubai and Spain. The daily, non-stop service begins from 1st August, 2010 making the Spanish capital the carrier’s 25th destination in Europe.

Pinnacle Airlines released capacity and operational results for its Pinnacle Airlines subsidiary for July 2009. Pinnacle reported that traffic in July decreased 0.6% compared to June 2009, capacity decreased 2.9% and the load factor was up 1.9 pts to 81.8%.

SAS Group’s traffic decreased by 13.6% during July and seat capacity was down 17.3% vs. 2008. SAS Group carried 2.0 million passengers in July, down 14.1 % vs. 2008 and the total passenger load factor in June was 83.8%, up 3.6 p.u. vs. July 2008.

Delta Air Lines reported traffic results for July 2009. System traffic in July 2009, including both Delta and Northwest operations, decreased 2.5% compared to July 2008 on a 3.6% decrease in capacity, and load factor increased 1.0 point to 87.7%.

Finnair’s scheduled traffic declined in July by nearly 7%, capacity was cut by nearly 9%, which meant that passenger load factor rose to 81%. Asian traffic declined by nearly 13% and capacity contracted by 17%, thereby increasing the load factor in Asian traffic to nearly 84%.

Southwest Airlines announced that traffic increased 5.2% compared to July 2008, capacity decreased 3.6% from the July 2008 level and the load factor for the month was 83.2%, compared to 76.3% for the same period last year.

BA reported that capacity for July 2009 was 2.7% below July 2008, traffic rose by 1.0% and the passenger load factor increased 3.1 points versus last year, to 84.6%. Traffic comprised an 11.0% decrease in premium traffic and a 3.5% increase in non-premium traffic.

Ryanair announced that its passenger traffic grew by 19% in July 2009 to 6.7million passengers, this resulted in a load factor of 89%, the same as in July 2008.

Alaska Air Group reported July operational results for its subsidiaries, Alaska Airlines (Alaska) and Horizon Air (Horizon). Alaska reported an increase in load factor to 84.3% in July 2009, compared to 79.7% in July 2008 and a 5.4% decline in capacity compared to the prior-year period. Traffic increased 0.1% compared to July 2008. Horizon reported