AirTran and the media

[humveedriver]

I thought Jetblue was going to take over for a while and be the media's target for all the problems with air travel thanks to the ice storms this winter. But at least one journalist found this to say about AirTran (maybe he/she lives in Milwaukee!)

AirTran capacity growth outpaces traffic
Wednesday May 2, 4:13 pm ET

AirTran Airways, which is pursuing a hostile takeover of Midwest Air Group Inc., carried more passengers in April, but rising traffic failed to keep up with capacity growth.
The airline said traffic rose 18.5 percent to a record of more than 1.4 billion revenue passenger miles, reflecting each mile flown by a paying passenger. However, the airline's load factor -- a key industry measure -- declined by 2 percentage points to 76.8 percent because of a 21.5 percent increase in capacity.
AirTran flew 1,997,030 passengers last month, up 12.9 percent over 1,768,541 in April 2006.
Through April, traffic grew 19 percent to about 5 billion passenger miles on a 20.8 percent increase in capacity. The airline flew 7,077,138 passengers through April, up 13.1 percent compared with 6,256,026 flown for the same period of 2006.
Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran Airways is a subsidiary of Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI - News). AirTran, which serves General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, is trying to buy out Oak Creek-based Midwest Air Group (AMEX: MEH - News), the operator of Midwest Airlines, through an unsolicited cash and stock exchange offer. Midwest is telling shareholders to reject the offer. Published May 2, 2007 by The Business Journal

I guess he/she didn't see Southwest's numbers;

Southwest's April traffic takes off
Wednesday May 2, 12:41 pm ET

Passenger traffic on Southwest Airlines was up in April, the airline said Wednesday.
The Dallas-based airline flew 5.9 billion revenue passenger miles in April compared with 5.7 billion revenue passenger miles in April 2006. A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown 1 mile.
The airline's capacity increased 9.6 percent to 8.2 billion available seat miles from 7.5 billion in April 2006. Southwest (NYSE: LUV - News) said its load factor, or percentage of seats filled, for the month dropped to 72.3 percent from 76.7 percent a year ago.

 

[Britpilot]

So what's your point?

 

[mnboyev]

Southwest loads are up... AirTran's down? who cares.... yield boys ... its yield !!!