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?

 

[Max Powers]

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.

False you need to look at the data.....Our RASM is just slightly higher than SWA. In other words our tickets in the aggregate are more.

 

[Beantown]

I have to say I saw the same thing when looking to get the wife and kids from CLT-ROC. 2 months in adv. and got 4 RT tickets for $132 each. Everyone else including my airline were $350ish. What really got me was when I picked my seats (yes you can add $50 total for seats) the plane was booked to almost 70%. Not sure if they were just blocking some seats or if they actually sold that many. Either way i'm not sure why they were undercutting everyone by 100%. Seems to me they have ZERO chance on making any money off my family and could have easly made an extra $400 off me.

Not trying to pick on Airtran as you see this with all the airlines. I'm not sure with computers and huge staffs doing nothing but REV. Mgmt how this happens so often but it does. -bean

 

[outtahere]

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

Thanks d!ckhead, perhaps in the future I will go with Southwest. And no, I have never applied at Airtran, I can't afford the paycut, and seeing how upgrade is going to be soaring over there, it would take far to many years to recoup my losses. Now for pinnacle, you paid for training correct? For you to call me out as if flying an RJ somehow makes me stupid, I just have to remind you that you PAID FOR YOUR JOB!!!!!! So perhaps you should take your own advise and take it down a notch. Now, except for the attack dogs on here, I like Airtran, and I want to see them survive, you can't do that if you don't charge enough to make a profit. I know Airtran wants to steal market share from Delta, but how long can you survive at cut rate prices. Oh and pinacle, I would love for you to show me where Airtran is more expensive than Delta. It would make me happy to be able to support the bottom line of my code share airline.

 

[Lear70]

Either way i'm not sure why they were undercutting everyone by 100%. Seems to me they have ZERO chance on making any money off my family and could have easly made an extra $400 off me.

Ummm... undercutting everyone by 100%?

Wouldn't that make the ticket free?

From $350 to $142 (what you paid per ticket total), is about a 60% reduction.

Sorry, the whole exaggerating thing drives me a little crazy. Supportable facts, even if it doesn't seem the point gets across, it's actually better.

We're not competing for market share from Delta, we already have it with record load factors.

Expecting a 2nd quarter profit, albeit modest, amongst the highest fuel prices ever recorded in the history of aviation. While I'd like to see prices come up more so we could more easily afford fair wages for our employees, we're arguably doing better than most of our competitors.

So while I won't tell you go have a cup of STFU (even though it was kind of funny at the time), I'll simply advise you to "attend to your own house".

At this rate, we're looking at downsizing from 25-30% or more at almost ALL the regionals. Should keep everyone (unfortunately) otherwise occupied.

 

[mnboyev]

Hmmm ... ck it !

www.kayak.com

this site almost always shows Tranny is not the cheapest .. at least in tix pricing !... grin..... But I do agree some of the web specials are too low..

 

[metroplex]

lear 70, did you try to go to XO jet, AAI not good enough?

 

[Lear70]

lear 70, did you try to go to XO jet, AAI not good enough?

Heh heh... let's just say that AAI management is furious that I helped kill a T.A. that was going to crucify the junior pilots and retirees while netting management Millions in savings through loss of work rules and Scope concessions.

XO Jet would be a fantastic career position, but AirTran is a good job as well. Both have their pros and cons, like every other job. Why the interest?

 

[Helos2Galaxy]

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.

BFD --- It's all irrelevant if you can't make money doing it..

 

[RIDETHELIGHTING]

So while I won't tell you go have a cup of STFU (even though it was kind of funny at the time), I'll simply advise you to "attend to your own house".

.

Yea I thought it was too, but guess not. :beer:

 

[Benhuntn]

You must be a junior fo at AirTran?