Airlines & Routes

GOL Brazil’s low-cost airline, released preliminary passenger statistics for the month of December 2008. Domestic passenger traffic for December 2008 decreased 1.7% and capacity increased 5.1% year-over-year. Domestic load factor for the month was 68%.

In December 2008, Air France-KLM

Delta’s system traffic in December 2008 increased 0.7% versus December 2007 on a capacity decrease of 2.4%. Delta’s system load factor increased 2.4 points to 80.1%.

JetBlue Airways Corporation reported that its traffic in December decreased 1.8% from December 2007, on a capacity decrease of 5.1%. Load factor for December 2008 was 79.4%, an increase of 2.6 points from December 2007.

easyJet reported that traffic for December 2008 increased 7.3% compared to December 2007 and that the load factor was up 3.3 pts to 82.3% compared to the same period in 2007.

Ryanair’s December traffic increased 11% compared to the previous year while the load factor was stable at 81.5%.

US Airways Group reported December traffic results for 2008. Mainline traffic for the month was down 1.1% versus December 2007. Capacity was down 6.4% versus December 2007 and the passenger load factor for the month of December was a record 80.3%, up 4.4 points versus December 2007.

WestJet announced December traffic results with a record load factor of 80.9% for the month. Traffic increased 12.8% while capacity grew 10.6%. In the month of December, over 90,000 additional guests flew with the airline than in December 2007.

Continental Airlines reported a December consolidated (mainline plus regional) load factor of 79.9%, 1.2 points above the December 2007 consolidated load factor. Consolidated traffic declined 6.7%, while capacity declined 8.1%.

BA reported that in December 2008, passenger capacity was 3.0% below December 2007, traffic fell by 3.4% and the passenger load factor decreased 0.2 points versus last year, to 76.7%.