Alaska Air Group December Traffic, Capacity Improve, While Load Factor Declines

(RTTNews) - Scheduled passenger services provider Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) reported Tuesday operational results for the month of December for its subsidiaries, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. The group's combined traffic and capacity improved, while passenger load factor declined from last year.

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

The Seattle, Washington-based airliner reported that combined Air Group traffic for the month of December, measured in revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, grew 9.1 percent to 2.71 billion from 2.48 billion in the same period last year.

Capacity, measured in available seat miles, or ASMs, also increased 12.3 percent to 3.18 billion from 2.84 billion in December 2013. However, the Group's load factor for December declined 2.5 percentage points to 85.0 percent from last year's 87.5 percent.

Alaska Air Group carried 2.56 million revenue passengers in the month of December, up 8.8 percent from 2.35 million in the preceding year month.

For Alaska Airlines, traffic for the month improved 9.4 percent to 2.45 billion RPMs, and capacity also grew 12.7 percent to 2.87 billion ASMs from last year. Passenger load factor decreased 2.6 percentage points to 85.4 percent from last year's 88.0 percent.

Alaska Airlines carried 1.83 million revenue passengers in the month of December, up 9.4 percent from the preceding year month. It also reported that 80.0 percent of its flights arrived on time in December 2014, but was down 5.4 percentage points from last year.

For Horizon Air, traffic increased 1.6 percent to 189 million RPMs, and capacity grew 3.5 percent to 234 million ASMs from a year ago. Meanwhile, passenger load factor was 80.8 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from last year.

Horizon Air carried 652 thousand revenue passengers in the month, up 5.0 percent from the preceding year month. Horizon Air also reported that 81.0 percent of its flights arrived on time, which grew 2.7 percentage points from last year.

For the full-year 2014, combined Air Group traffic grew 6.5 percent to 30.72 billion RPMs, and capacity also increased 7.1 percent to 36.08 billion ASMs from last year. However, the Group's load factor for the period edged down 0.5 percentage points to 85.1 percent from last year.

Alaska Air Group also carried 29.28 million revenue passengers during the year, up 6.8 percent from the preceding year.

In Tuesday's regular trading session, ALK is currently trading at $60.06, up $0.59 or 0.99% on a volume of 18,967 shares.