Alaska Air Group December Traffic, Capacity And Load Factor Improve

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

The operational results include flights operated by Alaska and those under capacity purchase agreements, including Horizon, SkyWest and a small third-party carrier in the state of Alaska.

The Seattle, Washington-based airliner reported that combined Air Group traffic for the month of December, measured in revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, grew 6.7 percent to 2.48 billion from 2.32 billion in the same period last year.

Capacity, measured in available seat miles, or ASMs, increased 4.6 percent to 2.84 billion from 2.71 billion in December 2012. Alaska Air Group's load factor for December improved 1.8 percentage points to 87.5 percent from 85.7 percent in the same month a year ago.

Alaska Air Group carried 2.35 million revenue passengers in the month of December, up 7.8 percent from 2.18 million in the preceding year month.

For Alaska Airlines, traffic for the month improved 6.5 percent to 2.24 billion, and capacity also grew 4.5 percent to 2.55 billion from last year. Passenger load factor increased 1.7 percentage points to 88.0 percent from a year ago.

Alaska Airlines carried 1.67 million revenue passengers in the month of December, up 8.0 percent from the preceding year month.

Alaska Airlines also reported that 85.5 percent of its flights arrived on time in December 2013, a 2.2 percentage points rise from last year.

For Horizon Air, traffic increased 3.9 percent to 186 million RPMs, while capacity remained flat with last year at 226 million ASMs from a year ago. Passenger load factor was 82.5 percent, up 3.1 percentage points from last year.

Horizon Air carried 621 thousand revenue passengers in the month, up 5.9 percent from the preceding year month. Horizon Air also reported that 78.5 percent of its flights arrived on time, but declined 6.7 percentage points decline from last year.

ALK closed Friday's regular trading session at $74.52, up $0.23 on a volume of 0.81 million shares.