American Reports Strong April Traffic

American Airlines reported its April traffic on Tuesday showing higher passenger numbers and traffic.

American carried 16.5 million passengers during the month, a 0.8 percent increase from the same month last year.

RPM (revenue passenger miles) traffic was up 3.1 percent to 18.59 billion on an ASM (available seat miles) capacity increase of 0.8 percent to 22.6 billion. Resulting load factor was 82.2 percent, a 1.8 percentage point rise from 2016.

Traffic on international routes rose 11.6 percent, with Pacific region traffic jumping 27.7 percent. Domestic passenger traffic by contrast fell 0.8 percent.

American grew ASM capacity by 29.5 percent on international routes, but eased it back by 1.6 percent for its domestic mainline network.

The Fort Worth-based carrier expects its 2Q17 total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) to be up by about 3.5 to 5.5 percent over the second quarter 2016.