With capacity up more than traffic in April, American Airlines Group Inc. said its load factor, or percentage of seats filled with paying passengers, dropped slightly from April 2013.
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines Co. said its traffic increased despite a drop in capacity, making its flights fuller than a year earlier.
American said traffic on American Airlines and US Airways flights increased 2.5 percent last month on a 3.0 percent increase in capacity. The load factor declined 0.4 percentage points to 81.3 percent.
It reiterated earlier projections that its unit revenues will increase 4 to 6 percent in the second quarter over the same period in 2013.
Southwest estimated that its unit revenues jumped 7 to 8 percent last month from April 2013. Its traffic increased 4.4 percent despite a 0.6 percent decline in capacity. Southwest’s load factor climbed 3.9 points to 81.7 percent.
Airlines in general benefited in April from a later Easter. In 2013, Easter fell on March 31, compared with the April 20 date in 2014.
Follow Terry Maxon on Twitter at @tmaxon.
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