Southwest Airlines August Traffic, Capacity Rise; Load Factor Edges Down

(RTTNews) - Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) on Tuesday provided operational results for the month of August, reporting year-over-year increases in traffic and capacity, while load factor edged down.

Looking ahead, Southwest Airlines continues to estimate third-quarter operating revenue per available seat mile or RASM to decrease about 1.0 percent from the year-ago period.

Dallas, Texas-based Southwest said that traffic for the month of August, measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs, grew 7.5 percent to 10.34 billion from 9.62 billion in the same month last year. Capacity, measured in available seat miles or ASMs, increased 7.6 percent to 12.11 billion from last year's 11.25 billion.

However, load factor for the month edged down 0.1 percentage points to 85.4 percent from 85.5 percent in the year-ago period.

Revenue passengers carried totaled 10.10 million, up 6.9 percent from 9.44 million in the year-ago month.

The number of passengers enplaned during the month rose 6.0 percent to 12.60 million from 11.89 million last year. The number of trips flown improved 2.0 percent from a year ago to 108,817.

For the year-to-date eight-month period, Southwest Airlines' traffic improved 7.6 percent to 78.56 billion RPMs from 73.00 billion RPMs in the prior-year period. Capacity grew 6.7 percent to 94.00 billion ASMs from last year's 88.08 billion ASMs.

Load factor for the period edged up 0.7 percentage points to 83.6 percent from the year-ago period's 82.9 percent.

LUV closed Friday's trading at $37.23. In Monday's pre-market activity, the stock is up $0.57 or 1.53 percent to $37.80.