US Airways Group, Inc. announced December, fourth quarter and full-year 2009 traffic results. Mainline revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for the month were 4.5 billion, down 3.6 percent versus December 2008. Capacity was 5.7 billion available seat miles (ASMs), down 2.4 percent versus December 2008. Passenger load factor for the month of December was 79.3 percent, down 1.0 point versus December 2008.

US Airways President Scott Kirby said, "Our December consolidated (mainline and Express) passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) decreased approximately two percent versus the same period last year while total revenue per available seat mile decreased approximately one percent on a year-over-year basis. As we close calendar year 2009, we are pleased our revenue performance continued to show improvement with positive trends in both booked yields and corporate revenue.

"We would also like to thank our 32,000 employees for their tremendous efforts to take care of our customers during a challenging holiday travel period. We continued our strong operational performance throughout 2009 and look forward to building upon that momentum into 2010."

For the first ten months of 2009, as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), US Airways was number one in on-time performance among the nation's five largest network carriers. For the month of December, US Airways' preliminary on-time performance as reported to the DOT was 75.2 percent with a completion factor of 96.9 percent. Adverse winter weather and new TSA-mandated security protocols impacted these metrics.