BTS 58-16 Advisory Thursday, November 10, 2016 Contact: Dave Smallen Tel: 202-366-5568 BTS Statistics Release: August 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 82.4 percent in August, seasonally adjusted, falling to its lowest level since July 2012 with the second consecutive monthly decline.
The seasonally-adjusted load factor fell from July (83.1) to August (82.4) because passenger travel fell (0.7 percent decline in Revenue-Passenger-Miles (RPMs)) while system capacity rose to an all-time high (0.1 percent increase in Available Seat-Miles (ASMs)).
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.
Trends: Seasonally-adjusted Systemwide load factor (82.4) was down 2.3 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (84.7) reached in October 2015. Domestic load factor (83.4) was down 2.7 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (86.1) reached in October 2015. International load factor (80.0) was down 3.1 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (83.1) reached in March 2013.
Systemwide RPMs (77.3 billion) were down 1.3 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (78.3 billion) reached in June 2016. Domestic RPMs (54.7 billion) were down 1.1 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (55.3 billion) reached in June 2016. International RPMs (22.6 billion) were down 1.8 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (23.0 billion) reached in June 2016.
Systemwide ASMs (93.8 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.1 percent from July 2016. Domestic ASMs (65.5 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.2 percent from July 2016. International ASMs (28.3 billion) were down 0.5 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (28.4 billion) reached in June 2016.
Systemwide passenger enplanements (67.9 million) were down 1.3 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (68.8 million) reached in June 2016. Domestic passenger enplanements (59.3 million) were down 1.5 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (60.2 million) reached in May 2016. International passenger enplanements (8.6 million) were down 1.4 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (8.7 million) reached in June 2016 (Table 12).
Seasonally-adjusted trends are for the time period January 2000 to present.
Unadjusted Systemwide load factor (84.6) was down 1.9 points from the all-time August high (86.5) reached in 2012. Domestic load factor (84.7) was down 2.2 points from the all-time August high (86.9) reached in 2014. International load factor (84.3) was down 2.9 points from the all-time August high (87.2) reached in 2013. Systemwide, domestic and international load factors all dropped to their lowest August levels since 2008.
Systemwide RPMs (86.1 billion) reached an all-time August high, up 1.1 percent from the previous high (85.2 billion) reached in 2015. Domestic RPMs (59.3 billion) reached an all-time August high, up 2.5 percent from the previous high (57.8 billion) reached in 2015. International RPMs (26.9 billion) were down 2.1 percent from the all-time August high (27.4 billion) reached in 2015.
Systemwide ASMs (101.8 billion) reached an all-time August high, up 3.3 percent from the previous high (98.6 billion) reached in 2015. Domestic ASMs (70.0 billion) reached an all-time August high, up 4.8 percent from the previous high (66.7 billion) reached in 2015. International ASMs (31.9 billion) were virtually unchanged from the all-time August high (31.9 billion) reached in 2015.
Systemwide passenger enplanements (73.4 million) reached an all-time August high, up 0.8 percent from the previous high (72.9 million) reached in 2015. Domestic passenger enplanements (63.5 million) reached an all-time August high, up 1.1 percent from the previous high (62.8 million) reached in 2015. International passenger enplanements (9.9 million) were down 1.4 percent from the all-time August high (10.1 million) reached in 2015.
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: August 2016 U.S. Airline Traffic Data
