American Airlines Reports Record May Traffic

American Airlines reported higher passenger traffic in May, with international flights leading the way.

American carried 17.43 million passengers during the month, essentially flat from May 2016, but RPM (revenue passenger miles) traffic was up 2.6 percent overall. The Dallas-based airline said the 19.9 billion RPMs recorded for May was a record high. Available seat miles (ASM) capacity rose by 2.3 percent, producing a 0.2 percentage point lift in load factor.

International routes saw the biggest growth with a 10.6 percent jump in RPM traffic. Of that, the Pacific market returned a 23.3 percent increase, followed by Atlantic routes on 13.6 percent growth. In comparison, domestic flying contracted 1.5 percent in RPM terms. American counts Canada, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Island as domestic routes.

Capacity growth broadly matched the increase in traffic with American adding 22.3 percent ASM capacity on Pacific region flights. Domestic capacity was pared back by 0.8 percent in May.

Cargo showed strong growth during the month, with the number of cargo ton miles jumping 16.8 percent to 238,792.

American said it “continues to expect its second quarter 2017 total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) to be up approximately 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent year-over-year.”