BTS 32-16 Advisory Thursday, June 16, 2016 Contact: Dave Smallen Tel: 202-366-5568 BTS Statistics Release: March 2016 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 82.3 percent in March, seasonally adjusted, falling for the third consecutive month. Seasonal adjustment allows the comparing of monthly load factors to all other months.
Load factor is a measure of the use of aircraft capacity that compares the system use, measured in Revenue Passenger-Miles (RPMs) as a proportion of system capacity, measured in Available Seat-Miles (ASMs).
The seasonally-adjusted load factor rose month-to-month as a result of a 0.5 percent decline in RPMs from February to March combined with a 0.5 percent increase in ASMs.
Trends: Seasonally-adjusted Systemwide load factor (82.3) was down 2.4 points from the all-time high (84.7) reached in October 2015. Domestic load factor (83.3) was down 2.8 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (86.1) reached in October 2015. International load factor (80.2) was down 2.9 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (83.1) reached in March 2013.
Systemwide RPMs (75.9 billion) were down 1.1 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (76.8 billion) reached in October 2015. Domestic RPM (53.4 billion) were down 1.2 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (54.1 billion) reached in December 2015. International RPMs (22.5 billion) were down 2.7 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (23.1 billion) reached in July 2015.
Systemwide ASMs (92.2 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.5 percent from February 2016 (91.7 billion). Domestic ASMs (64.2 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.6 percent from February 2016 (63.8 billion). International ASMs (28.1 billion) were down 0.4 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (28.2 billion) reached in August 2015.
Systemwide passenger enplanements (66.6 million) were down 2.2 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (68.1 million) reached in October 2015. Domestic passenger enplanements (58.0 million) were down 2.6 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (59.6 million) reached in October 2015. International passenger enplanements (8.60 million) were down 0.4 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (8.64 million) reached in December 2015.
Seasonally adjusted trends are for the time period January 2000 to present. Additional data, including domestic and international numbers, can be found on the seasonally-adjusted data page.
Unadjusted Systemwide load factor (83.6) was down 0.7 points from the all-time March high (84.3) reached in 2013. Domestic load factor (85.3) was down 0.5 points from the all-time March high (85.8) reached in 2015. International load factor (79.4) was down 3.1 points from the all-time March high (82.5) reached in 2013.
Systemwide RPMs (78.6 billion) reached an all-time March high, up 3.8 percent from the previous high (75.8 billion) reached in 2015. Domestic RPMs (56.7 billion) reached an all-time March high, up 5.1 percent from the previous high (53.9 billion) reached in 2015. International RPMs (22.0 billion) reached an all-time March high, up 0.7 percent from the previous high (21.8 billion) reached in 2015.
Systemwide ASMs (94.1 billion) reached an all-time March high, up 4.2 percent from the previous high (90.3 billion) reached in 2015. Domestic ASMs (66.4 billion) reached an all-time March high, up 4.2 percent from the previous high (63.7 billion) reached in 2005. International ASMs (27.7 billion) reached an all-time March high, up 0.7 percent from the previous high (27.5 billion) reached in 2014.
Systemwide passenger enplanements (70.3 million) reached an all-time March high, up 3.1 percent from the previous high (68.2 million) reached in 2015. Domestic passenger enplanements (61.4 million) reached an all-time March high, up 3.0 percent from the previous high (59.6 million) reached in 2015. International passenger enplanements (9.0 million) reached an all-time March high, up 3.2 percent from the previous high (8.7 million) reached in 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 Statistics Release: March 2016 U.S. Airline Traffic Data
