Alaska Air Group April Traffic, Capacity Rise; Load Factor Flat With Last Year

(RTTNews) - Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) on Monday reported operational results for the month of April 2014 for its subsidiaries, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, and on a combined basis. The group's combined traffic and capacity increased, while passenger load factor was flat with last year.

The operational results on a combined basis include flights operated by Alaska and those under capacity purchase agreements, including Horizon, SkyWest and PenAir.

The Seattle, Washington-based company reported that combined Air Group traffic for the month of April, measured in revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, grew 4.9 percent to 2.49 billion from 2.38 billion in the same period last year.

Capacity, measured in available seat miles, or ASMs, also increased 4.9 percent to 2.89 billion from 2.76 billion in the year-ago period. The Group's load factor for April was 86.1 percent, the same as in the previous-year period.

Alaska Air Group carried 2.34 million revenue passengers in the month of April, up 5.3 percent from 2.22 million in the same period last year.

For Alaska Airlines, traffic for the month of April improved 4.3 percent from last year to 2.26 billion RPMs and capacity also grew 4.3 percent to 2.61 billion ASMs. This resulted in load factor of 86.8 percent, flat with last year.

Alaska Airlines carried 1.69 million revenue passengers in the month of April, up 4.5 percent from the preceding year month. It also reported that 90.1 percent of its flights arrived on time in the month, up 3.3 percentage points from last year.

For Horizon Air, traffic for April was flat with the year-ago period at 170 million RPMs, while capacity was also flat with the prior-year period at 217 million ASMs. The resulting load factor was consistent with the prior-year period at 78.3 percent.

Horizon Air carried 577 thousand revenue passengers in the month, up 2.9 percent from the preceding year month. Horizon Air also reported that 93.3 percent of its flights arrived on time in the month, up 4.0 percentage points from last year.

ALK is currently trading at $94.42, down $1.18 or 1.23 percent on a volume of 7,000 shares.