United Reports Drop in Traffic, Capacity, and Load Factor for March

United Airlines announced operational results for March 2016.  The carrier’s consolidated traffic, capacity, and load factor were all down year-over-year.

Total traffic for the Chicago-based airline during the month of March was 17.095 billion RPMs, or revenue passenger miles, a decrease of 1.5% from 17.349 billion RPMs in March 2015.  The carrier’s total capacity for the month was down 0.1%, to 20.953 billion ASMs, or available seat miles, from 20.967 billion ASMs last March.

Meanwhile, United’s consolidated load factor decreased slightly, down 1.1 percentage points to 81.6% from 82.7% in March 2015.

In terms of international traffic, United saw a decrease of 3%, while its international capacity decreased by 0.9%.  The carrier saw a 0.3% increase in domestic revenue passenger miles, with a 1.5% increase in domestic available seat miles.

Mainline RPMs dropped 1.3% with an increase of 0.3% in mainline ASMs, while regional RPMs dropped 2.7% with a 2.5% decrease in regional ASMs.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)