American and Southwest Airlines Report Slightly Improved Traffic in February

DALLAS/FT. WORTH, TEXAS–American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) and Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) released February 2014 traffic reports showing relatively slight improvements despite inclement weather.

Southwest Airlines announced today a 1.2 percent increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) totaling 7.1 billion compared to February 2013. The figure is calculated with total passengers by flights flown within the period. Southwest also reported a healthy drop in available seat miles (ASMs) of 1.7 percent to 9.1 billion, compared to last year. ASMs are the number of empty seats per flight in a given month.

American Airlines released less aggressive traffic increase figures for the month, citing wintry weather affecting hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The airline was pushed to cancel more than 14,000 flights as a result. Despite the setbacks, AAL posted a 0.5 percent increase of RPMs at 15.1 billion. The airline did, however, post an increase in ASMs of 0.8 percent to 19.2 billion available seat miles.

American Airlines also today released a brief statement announcing its decision to halt interline sales and reciprocal frequent flyer agreements with JetBlue Airways.  The company stated, “Effective April 1, customers will no longer earn miles or points when traveling on eligible routes operated by the other airline. All American AAdvantage miles or JetBlue TrueBlue points already accrued through this partnership will be credited to customers’ accounts and are not affected. The two airlines are working together to ensure these changes have little impact to customers.”

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