AirTran Airways Reports All-Time Record May Traffic

[funnyman12]

ORLANDO, Fla., June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc., (NYSE: AAI - News), today reported record traffic for the month of May 2008. The airline reported that revenue passenger miles (RPMs), available seat miles (ASMs), enplaned passengers, and load factor represent new all-time company records for the month of May.
For May, traffic grew by 18.2 percent to more than 1.7 billion RPMs based on a 14.0 percent increase in capacity. The company's load factor for the month was 79.3 percent. The airline enplaned more than 2.2 million passengers for the month, a 6.0 percent increase from May 2007.


Well at least that is some good news. Hopefully the 2nd qtr is profitable as Wall Street expects.

 

[outtahere]

Well of course they did. They are consistantly $200- $300 cheaper than all other airlines, including Southwest. Matter of fact I bought my mother in law a ticket on them round trip from Jax to Rdu for $240 including ALL taxes and fees!!!!! The next cheapest fare was Southwest at $370!! That is a significant difference. This is not the way to make money in my opinion.

 

[PCL_128]

They are consistantly $200- $300 cheaper than all other airlines, including Southwest.

This is absolutely false.

 

[outtahere]

I have been doing alot of research lately for people wanting to fly, and trust me, it is not false. Look for yourself. They are always cheaper than Delta out of Atlanta by a wide margin, but also than Southwest on most competing routes.

 

[outtahere]

In this day and age of high oil, you need to raise your fares, you might want to send management that memo.

 

[Britpilot]

In this day and age of high oil, you need to raise your fares, you might want to send management that memo.

OK, thanks, got it. I'll let the boss know.

 

[PCL_128]

I have been doing alot of research lately for people wanting to fly, and trust me, it is not false. Look for yourself. They are always cheaper than Delta out of Atlanta by a wide margin, but also than Southwest on most competing routes.

I've done the research many times. You're simply incorrect. In many cases, our fares are higher than Delta. Usually the fares are identical. It's extremely rare that our fare is below DAL's.

 

[PCL_128]

In this day and age of high oil, you need to raise your fares, you might want to send management that memo.

Yes, I'm sure our management is interested in us passing along the theories of some RJ pilot on a message board.

 

[jehtplane]

Well of course they did. They are consistantly $200- $300 cheaper than all other airlines, including Southwest. Matter of fact I bought my mother in law a ticket on them round trip from Jax to Rdu for $240 including ALL taxes and fees!!!!! The next cheapest fare was Southwest at $370!! That is a significant difference. This is not the way to make money in my opinion.

How long ago did you put your resume in?

 

[gt1900]

You can bet AAI managment is doing everything they can to maximize revenue. Its supply and demand, and Id be willing to bet they know more about that then we do. They do a very good job of maximizing revenue. Just look at the fee they charge for securing a seat. Started out at about $2. Gradually increased to $7. When it hit $7 the revenue tumbled because people stoped picking their seat. AAI lowered the fair down to $6 and the revenue maximized. AAI has a plan, they try and charge the proper amount of money to fill up as many seats as possible to maximize the revenue. Remember, if you raise ticket prices too much people stop flying. There is a fine balance between charging too much and not enough. And that balance is differenct with every airline.

 

[Kenney G]

I was curious and checked midwest from LA to LGA. $800. Airtran 254 webspecial. June 17th. They do need to raise the fares a bit.

 

[PCL_128]

I was curious and checked midwest from LA to LGA. $800. Airtran 254 webspecial. June 17th. They do need to raise the fares a bit.

And yet, guess which airline is doing better financially? Charging $800 on a couple of seats per flight doesn't do you much good if you have half the number of seats that everyone else does.

 

[gt1900]

Charging $800 doesn't do any good if people don't pay $800 for tickets. Remember, people still have to buy the tickets. BTW.. From what Ive heard is that AAI's plan is to fill up as many seats as possible and make money on the higher last minute fairs. That makes sense IMO. The goal is to fill up every available seat and charge the most money possible. Obviously since AAI is only running mid 70% load factors, they aren't charging too little. It would be one thing if they had a 100% load factor and were charging $50 for a round trip ticket. But charging $800 for a ticket from LA to LGA doesn't mean anything if the load factor is 25%. Remember guys, its about maximizing profit, supply and demand. This is simple economics stuff here. There is a point of diminishing returns where charging too much lowers your profit. Remember, airfairs are highly elastic. And right now there is a producer surplus (too many friggen seats). Charging $254 for a trip may be what it takes for AAI to maximize profit. None of us really have any idea. Just looking at a few ticket prices proves absolutly nothing...

 

[RIDETHELIGHTING]

Matter of fact I bought my mother in law a ticket on them round trip from Jax to Rdu for $240 including ALL taxes and fees!!!!! The next cheapest fare was Southwest at $370!! That is a significant difference. This is not the way to make money in my opinion.

Hey just wanted say thanks for helping us out with record increase in traffic. Now go have a little STFU

 

[Colonel Savage]

Hey just wanted say thanks for helping us out with record increase in traffic. Now go have a little STFU

Dude, that's still a customer your talkin' to. Take a little of your own advice.

 

[RIDETHELIGHTING]

cool dude I will

 

[Bavarian Chef]

Hey just wanted say thanks for helping us out with record increase in traffic. Now go have a little STFU

Come on now, you know better. The article didn't mention PRASM and CASM.

That's the bread and butter.

 

[BSkin]

I was curious and checked midwest from LA to LGA. $800. Airtran 254 webspecial. June 17th. They do need to raise the fares a bit.

Must be some great cookies!

 

[maxblast72]

Dude, that's still a customer your talkin' to. Take a little of your own advice.

The sad part is we could probably tell every customer to STFU as they walked off the airplane, and they would still book Airtran the next time if the price is $10 cheaper.

Price, on-time, and arrive with bags seem to be the only thing people care about nowadays. I guess that is why we got #1 in the quality rating. We do price, on-time, and arriving with bags pretty well at Airtran.

 

[Whataburger]

What about SHASHM and BLADASM?