EUROPE. Four major European airlines today reported solid growth in March passenger traffic, though several reported lower load factors in the month.
Air France-KLM, the world’s largest airline by revenues, reported a +0.2% rise in passenger traffic to 6.27 million and a +3.2% increase in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs). The company’s load factor fell by -1.3% to 81% in the period.
Traffic was affected by the French half-term break continuing into March from February, as well as local elections and an earlier Easter compared to 2007. Holiday periods for the major legacy carriers tend to see a fall in premium traffic and stronger demand from the leisure sector.
UK-based easyJet’s passenger numbers rose +20.5% in March to 3.73 million with the load factor up 3.4 percentage points to 90.2%. Last week, Ryanair reported a +19% rise in passengers carried to 4.48 million in March.
Aer Lingus reported a +22.1% rise in RPKs to 1.42 billion with the passenger load factor falling 2.8 percentage points to 75.3%. The airline has aggressively expanded its services with seat capacity up +26.5% from a year earlier.
SAS reported that passenger numbers dropped -5.5% to 2.6 million, but it also noted a +1.4% rise in RPKs. The passenger load factor rose by +0.4 of a percentage point to 73.2%.
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