(By Balaseshan) Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) reported marginal decrease in combined traffic and load factor for the month of December for Southwest Airlines and AirTran, due to a decrease in passengers and trips flown.
Consolidated revenue passenger miles, or traffic, declined 0.2% to 8.17 billion, while capacity measured in terms of available seat miles rose 0.2% to 10.479 billion. Load factor declined 0.4 percentage points to 78.0%.
Revenue passengers carried for the month of December fell 3.7% to 8.610 million, while enplaned passengers decreased 2.5% to 10.64 million.
Average length of haul for December increased 3.6% to 949 from 916, while trips flown fell 5.4% to 108,789.
For December 2012, passenger revenue per ASM (PRASM) is estimated to have been comparable to December 2011.
For the fourth quarter of 2012, traffic fell 1.4% to 24.82 billion while capacity declined 0.3% to 31.19 billion. Load factor decreased 0.9 percentage points to 79.6%.
Revenue passengers carried for the fourth quarter declined 3.4% to 26.607 million, while enplaned passengers decreased 2.4% to 32.70 million. Average length of haul for the quarter increased 2.1% to 927, while trips flown fell 4.7% to 327,590.
For the full year of 2012, traffic fell 1% to 102.87 billion while capacity declined 0.3% to 128.14 billion. Load factor decreased 0.5 percentage points to 80.3%.
Revenue passengers carried for the full year declined 0.7% to 109.35 million, while enplaned passengers fell 1% to 133.98 million. Average length of haul decreased 0.2% to 941, while trips flown fell 2.7% to 1.36 million.
LUV is trading up 2.02% at $11.13 on Tuesday. The stock has been trading between $7.76 and $11.27 for the past 52 weeks.