Alaska Air Passenger Traffic Growth Continues

Alaska Air Group airlines flew 5 percent more passengers in September and for the year-to-date period.

The Seattle based airline carried 3.54 million passengers in September and a total of 33.06 million for the year to end September, both periods up 4.7 percent from the previous year.

September’s passenger traffic grew 8.4 percent in revenue passenger miles (RPM) terms on an available seat miles (ASM) capacity increase of 10.1 percent. Load factor dropped 1.3 percentage points to 82.9 percent as a result.

For the first nine months of the year Alaska Air Group airlines’ RPM traffic rose 6.6 percent, and with ASM capacity increasing by 6.0 percent, passenger load factor edged up 0.4 of a percentage point to 84.6 percent.

Alaska Air Group airlines include Alaska Airlines, Virgin America, and regional carriers Horizon Air, SkyWest Airlines and Peninsula Airlines. Alaska Air bought Virgin America in December 2016.