Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) today reported a systemwide April 2002 load factor of 73.5 percent, 0.6 points below last year's load factor. For April 2002, Continental reported a domestic load factor of 74.6 percent and an international load factor of 71.5 percent. The movement of Easter from April last year to late March this year contributed to the load factor decrease compared to April 2001.
For April 2002, Continental reported a record on-time arrival rate of 87.9 percent and a record completion factor of 99.9 percent for April 2002. The record April completion factor also tied February and March 2002 for the company record.
In April 2002, Continental flew 4.9 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) systemwide and 6.6 billion available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a traffic decrease of 11.7 percent and a capacity decrease of 11.0 percent versus April 2001. Domestic traffic was 3.1 billion RPMs, down 10.6 percent from April 2001, and domestic capacity was 4.1 billion ASMs, down 11.0 percent from last year.
Lower year-over-year yields and lower load factors resulted in a decrease in estimated systemwide passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) of between 10 and 12 percent for April 2002, as compared to April 2001. For March 2002, RASM declined 6.4 percent as compared to March 2001.
Continental Express flights, operated for Continental Airlines by its subsidiary ExpressJet Airlines under a capacity purchase arrangement, reported a load factor of 62.6 percent for April 2002, 1.6 points below last year's April load factor. Continental Express flew 313.4 million RPMs and 500.3 million ASMs in April 2002, resulting in a traffic increase of 6.7 percent and a capacity increase of 9.3 percent versus April 2001. Under the capacity purchase arrangement with ExpressJet Airlines, Continental payments to ExpressJet Airlines are generally not affected by variations in RPMs and load factors generated by Continental Express flights. |
