United Sees Rise in Capacity and Traffic for January While Load Factor Drops

United Airlines announced operational results for January 2017. The carrier’s consolidated traffic and capacity were up year-over-year, while its load factor decreased for the month.

Total traffic for the Chicago-based airline during the month of January was 16.05 billion RPMs, or revenue passenger miles, an increase of 4% from 15.42 billion RPMs in January 2016.  The carrier’s total capacity for the month was up 4.7% to 19.96 billion ASMs, or available seat miles, from 19.496 billion ASMs last November.

Meanwhile, United’s consolidated load factor decreased slightly, down 0.5 percentage points to 80.4% from 80.9% in January 2016.

United had an increase of 3.3% in international traffic, while its international capacity rose by 4.1%.  The airline saw a 4.7% increase in domestic traffic, with a 5.3% rise in domestic capacity.

Additionally, United had six days in January with 100% departure completion, the most the carrier has ever had in a month.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)