Continental sees load factors fall in November

CONTINENTAL Airlines has suffered a drop in load factors, the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers, on its domestic and international mainlines in November.

The US carrier reported a consolidated (mainline plus regional) load factor of 80.1 per cent, 0.6 points below that of November 2006. The mainline load factor was 80.4 per cent, 0.7 points less than the same month the previous year. In addition, the carrier's domestic mainline load factor of 83.1 per cent was 1.1 points below November 2006, and its international mainline load factor of 77.3 per cent had fallen 0.1 points.

On the other hand, consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) for November is estimated to have increased 7 - 8 per cent compared to November 2006, with mainline passenger RASM estimated to have grown by 7.5 to 8.5 per cent.

During the reporting period, Continental flew 7.4 billion consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 9.2 billion consolidated available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in its traffic increase of 4.6 per cent, which fell behind the carrier's capacity increase of 5.3 per cent compared to the same month the previous year.

Last month, Continental flew 6.6 billion mainline RPMs and 8.2 billion mainline ASMs, resulting in a year-on-year mainline traffic increase of 5.8 per cent failing to keep up with the mainline capacity increase of 6.8 per cent. Domestic mainline traffic was 3.6 billion RPMs in November 2007, up 2.6 per cent from the corresponding month a year ago, which fell considerably short of the 4 per cent increase in domestic mainline capacity to 4.4 billion ASMs.

A statement from the airline said that on account of rising fuel prices, the company has lowered its mainline capacity growth estimate for full year 2008 to between two and three per cent, down from its previous 3 - 4 per cent.