BTS 33-15 Thursday, July 16, 2015 Contact: Dave Smallen Tel: 202-366-5568 BTS Releases April 2015 U.S. Airline Traffic Data
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that U.S. airlines’ systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service load factor – a measure of the use of airline capacity – fell to 82.8 percent in April, seasonally adjusted, declining for the second consecutive month. Seasonal adjustment allows the comparing of monthly load factors to all other months.
For April, U.S. airlines reported seasonally-adjusted all-time monthly highs in passenger enplanements, Revenue Passenger-Miles (RPMs) and Available Seat-Miles (ASMs). Systemwide passenger enplanements in April (65.4 million) exceeded the previous record in March 2015 by 0.4 percent. Systemwide RPMs in April (73.8 billion) exceeded the previous record in March 2015 by 0.4 percent. Systemwide ASMs in April (89.1 billion) exceeded the previous record in December 2014 by 0.8 percent. These all-time highs did not result in a higher load factor in April because the airline capacity growth exceeded the growth in passenger travel.
The April load factor of 82.8 was below the all-time seasonally-adjusted high of 84.5 in January 2014. Load factor is a measure of the use of aircraft capacity that compares the system use, measured in RPMs as a proportion of system capacity, measured in ASMs.
The seasonally-adjusted load factor fell in April for the second consecutive month after reaching the highest point in 12 months in February. The load factor declined from March to April despite a 0.3 percent increase in RPMs because system capacity grew faster (0.8 percent increase in ASMs).
Trends: Seasonally-adjusted The April load factor (82.8) dropped to the lowest level since November 2014. In April, RPMs, the passenger measure used to calculate load factor, reached an all-time high. However, the RPM increase did not keep pace with the increase in ASMs, leading to a decrease in the load factor. The last 10 months, starting with July 2014 through April 2015 are the 10 all-time highest months for RPMs with April 2015 the highest.
Unadjusted Systemwide: Load factor (82.5) was down from the all-time April high set in 2014 (83.4). The number of passengers, RPMs and ASMs all reached record highs for the any April.
Domestic: Load factor (84.9) equaled the all-time high for the month of April set in 2014 (84.9). The number of passengers and RPMs reached all-time highs for the month of April. ASMs remained below the pre-recession peak in 2005.
International: Load factor (77.1) was down from April 2014 (80.1) and from the all-time April high set in 2012 (80.2). The number of passengers and RPMs were down from the all-time highs for the month of April, set in 2014. ASMs exceeded the previous record high set in April 2014.
See Air Traffic Release for summary tables and additional data. Additional traffic data can be found on the BTS Airlines and Airports page. Click on a link in the Quick Links box on the right. See Load factor, RPMs, ASMs and Passengers. For more historical data, see Traffic on the BTS website. See Seasonal Adjustment for methodology and additional explanation. See data for airline data since 2000 as well as seasonally-adjusted data for rail, transit, pipelines, trucking and waterways.
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BTS Releases April 2015 U.S. Airline Traffic Data
