Airlines & Routes

United Airlines reported its preliminary traffic results for December 2005. The company reported its highest-ever December passenger load factor of 80 percent. Total scheduled revenue passenger miles (RPMs) increased in December by 0.5 percent on a capacity decrease of 2.3 percent in scheduled available seat miles (ASMs) compared to the same period in 2004.

ExpressJet revenue passenger miles (RPMs) totaled 817.2 million, up 23.1 percent over December 2004, and available seat miles (ASMs) increased by 15.6 percent compared with December 2004. ExpressJet’s December load factor was 75.4 percent, a 4.6 point increase over December 2004. The company flew 75,312 block hours, compared with 65,881 block hours in December 2004,

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. reported preliminary system statistics and traffic results for November 2005 and for the 11-month period ended November 30, 2005. Total block-hour activity during November decreased 8.8% compared with the same month in 2004, while the average number of aircraft operated remained constant. Block hours operated in the ACMI segment decreased

Icelandair carried 94.322 passengers in November, an increase of 15,3% from November 2004. The capacity (ASK) in November increased by 3,2% compared to the same month last year and sales (RPK) increased by 14,7%, resulting in passenger load factor of 74,6%, up by 7,4 percentage points from last year.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced traffic results to the end of November 2005. Freight traffic for November showed 2.8% growth over 2004, while passenger traffic grew at 6.1%. For the first 11 months of the year, freight recorded 2.8% growth while passenger traffic was up 7.7%. Passenger load factors for November were 73%.

WestJet will commence new non-stop service between Vancouver and Honolulu, Hawaii today. WestJet now offers five non-stop return flights per week between Vancouver and Honolulu with connecting service to several destinations across Canada.

Korean Air continues to see strong passenger traffic and carried 1.97 million passengers in October, up 12.8% compared to 1.75 million in the same period last year.Thanks to increased capacity, revenue passenger kilometers (RPK)

Cathay Pacific Airways will commence daily service between Hong Kong and Rome, starting 27 March 2006. The airline also announced the launch of two other new services to Europe – to Moscow and Manchester, England, which will start 27 March 2006. The new services follow Cathay Pacific’s biggest order for new aircraft, intended to increase

Air France-KLM’s November traffic increased by 12.2% on 8.0% higher capacity. The load factor improved by 2.9 points to 78.6%. The number of passenger carried increased by 9.2% to 5.5 million.

easyJet reported that the airline carried in November 2,297,895 passengers, up 8.3% compared to the same period in 2004. The airline’s load factor decreased by 1 point to 80.2%.