Continental Airlines reported all-time records for its mainline systemwide, domestic, and international load factors for July…
Continental Airlines reported all-time records for its mainline systemwide, domestic, and international load factors for July. Systemwide mainline load factor was an all-time high of 86.1 percent, 1.6 points higher than its previous all-time record in July 2003. Domestic mainline load factor increased 0.8 points over the same period last year, to 86.5 percent. International mainline load factor was 85.6 percent, 3.1 points above July 2003 and 2.2 points higher than its previous all-time record in July 2000.
Despite bad weather impacting its hub cities of Houston, New York and Cleveland, Continental had few flight cancellations and maintained a systemwide mainline completion factor of 99.7 percent. The company recorded a U.S. Department of Transportation on-time arrival rate of 76.5 percent.
In July 2004, Continental flew 6.6 billion mainline revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 7.7 billion mainline available seat miles (ASMs) systemwide, resulting in a traffic increase of 9.4 percent and a capacity increase of 7.3 percent as compared to July 2003. Domestic mainline traffic was 3.7 billion RPMs, down 0.5 percent from July 2003, and domestic mainline capacity was 4.3 billion ASMs, 1.4 percent lower than the same period last year.
Systemwide July 2004 mainline passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) is estimated to have increased between 2.0 and 3.0 percent compared to July 2003. For June 2004, RASM increased 1.3 percent compared to June 2003.
Continental`s regional operations, marketed as Continental Express, posted an all-time record July load factor of 79.3 percent, 4.9 points above July 2003 and 2.3 points higher than its previous all-time record in June 2004. Regional RPMs were 729.7 million and regional ASMs were 920.1 million in July 2004, resulting in a traffic increase of 24.6 percent and a capacity increase of 16.9 percent versus July 2003.
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