Southwest Airlines Co. LUVreported disappointing traffic results for April. Traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs) slipped 0.3% to around 11.2 billion while capacity or available seat miles (ASMs) inched up 1.5% to 13.57 billion. The decline in traffic is due to softness in bookings following the fatal engine failure last month.
Also, load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) deteriorated 150 basis points (bps) to 82.5% in the month as capacity expanded while traffic contracted. However, passenger count grew 2.4% to 13.78 billion.
In the first four months of the year, Southwest Airlines witnessed a 2.6% rise in RPMs to 41.64 billion. Also, ASMs nudged up 1.7% to 50.94 billion. As a result, load factor expanded 80 bps to 81.8%. Moreover, passenger count increased 4.7% to 51.32 billion.