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 82.6 percent in November, seasonally adjusted, after remaining virtually unchanged for four consecutive months. Seasonal adjustment allows the comparing of monthly load factors to all other months.
The November load factor of 82.6 was the lowest since the July 2012 load factor of 82.5. U.S. airlines’ load factor reached a seasonally-adjusted all-time high of 84.4 in January 2014 and gradually declined throughout the year. 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 fell from October to November as a result of a decline in RPMs and an increase in ASMs.
BTS is replacing previous monthly Air Traffic press releases with this monthly press release using seasonally-adjusted data.
Trends:
Seasonally-adjusted
Systemwide load factors gradually declined throughout 2014. Load factors have generally increased because demand, measured in RPMs, has increased at a faster pace since the recession than capacity, measured in ASMs. In November, demand declined from the all-time high in October while capacity increased slightly to the highest level since the recession. Systemwide enplanements also remain below pre-recession levels, held down by the slow growth in domestic enplanements. The record levels of international enplanements in 2014 combined with all-time high RPMs shows strong demand for longer distance flights.
Unadjusted
Systemwide: Demand, measured in RPMs, reached an all-time high for the month of November. The number of passengers and capacity, measured in ASMs, although increased from November 2013, remained below the all-time highs for the month of November set in 2007.
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. 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.
