European Load Factors Rise As Airlines Align Supply, Demand

European carriers appear to be aligning seat supply and demand successfully after Air France KLM and SAS reported this week that traffic, or revenue passenger kilometers, fell in December but load factors improved. Figures released last week by British Airways showed the same trend.

Air France KLM announced on Monday that December traffic fell 4.6 percent, but capacity, or available seat kilometers, was down 5.5 percent, pushing its load factor up by 0.8 percent to 79.7 percent. The biggest improvements were on routes to the Americas and Asia.

SAS this week also cited long-haul routes as the healthiest part of its business. Overall, traffic was down 11.7 percent last month, but capacity was down an even more dramatic 17.3 percent, owing to 18 aircraft having been taken out of service in 2009. Consequently, its load factor climbed 4.4 percent to 70.5 percent.

SAS also said its yield in November was down 9.4 percent from the same month in 2008, but this was "slightly better than October." No figure is available yet for December.

Last week, BA reported a 0.1 percent improvement in load factor to 76.8 percent, resulting from a capacity decrease of 4.2 percent and traffic decline of 4 percent. BA said long-haul premium cabins are "showing signs of recovery."

Also this week, the Lufthansa Group reported full-year passenger volumes of 76 million for 2009. The group includes not only Lufthansa, but also Swiss, with 13.8 million passengers, Austrian Airlines, with 3.3 million, and Bmi British Midland, with 3.8 million. The 2009 figure was down 2.6 percent from 2008, with capacity down 1.3 percent. Lufthansa did not break out figures for December.