Alaska Air Group March Traffic, Capacity Up, But Load Factor Down - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Scheduled passenger services provider Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) reported Thursday operational results for the month of March 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 declined year-on-year.

On a combined basis, Air Group announced a 4.7 percent rise in March 2014 traffic on a 5.4 percent capacity increase compared with last year. This resulted in a 0.6 point drop in load factor to 87.1 percent. These statistics include flights operated by Alaska and those under capacity purchase agreements, including Horizon, SkyWest and PenAir, the company said.

For the month, Air Group's traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs, was 2.61 billion, up 4.7%, compared with last year's 2.49 billion. Monthly capacity, measured in available seat miles or ASMs, grew 5.4% year-over-year to 2.99 billion, from 2.84 billion.