BTS 47-15 Advisory
Friday, October 16, 2015
Contact: Dave Smallen
Tel: 202-366-5568

BTS Releases July 2015 U.S. Airline Traffic Data

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that U.S. airlines’ systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service load factor – a measure of the use of airline capacity – rose to 84.2 percent in July, seasonally adjusted, rising for the third consecutive month. Seasonal adjustment allows the comparing of monthly load factors to all other months.

For July, U.S. airlines reported seasonally-adjusted all-time monthly highs in passenger enplanements, Revenue Passenger-Miles (RPMs) and Available Seat-Miles (ASMs). Systemwide passenger enplanements in July (66.7 million) exceeded the previous record in June 2015 by 0.8 percent. Systemwide RPMs in July (76.4 billion) exceeded the previous record in June 2015 by 1.8 percent. Systemwide ASMs in July (90.8 billion) exceeded the previous record in June 2015 by 0.8 percent.

The July load factor of 84.2 was the second highest of all-time, below the all-time seasonally-adjusted high of 84.5 in January 2014. Load factor is a measure of the use of aircraft capacity that compares the system use, measured in Revenue Passenger-Miles (RPMs) as a proportion of system capacity, measured in Available Seat-Miles (ASMs).

The seasonally-adjusted load factor rose in July following two consecutive months of growth. The load factor rose from June to July because passenger travel grew faster (1.8 percent increase in RPMs) than system capacity (0.8 percent increase in ASMs).

Trends:

Seasonally-adjusted

July was the fifth consecutive month in which RPMs, ASMs and passenger enplanements reached seasonally-adjusted all-time highs. The growth in RPMs from June to July (1.8 percent) outpaced the growth in capacity (0.8 percent). As a result, the July load factor (84.2) was the second highest all-time, below only January 2014 (84.5).

Unadjusted

Systemwide: July load factor (87.4) was the highest all-time monthly load factor and was up from the all-time July high set in 2011 (86.9). The number of passengers, RPMs and ASMs all reached record highs for any month.Domestic: July load factor (88.1) was the highest all-time monthly domestic load factor and was up from the all-time July high set in 2014 (87.8). The number of passengers, RPMs and ASMs all reached record highs for any month.International: July load factor (85.8) was down from the all-time July high set in 2013 (86.9). The number of passengers, RPMs and ASMs all reached record highs for any month.

For the first seven months of 2014, January through July, systemwide load factor (83.6) was down from the all-time high set in 2014 (83.8). The number of systemwide passengers, RPMs and ASMs all reached record highs for the first seven months of any year.

See Air Traffic Release for summary tables and additional data. Additional traffic data can be found on the BTS Airlines and Airports page. Click on a link in the Quick Links box on the right. See Load factor, RPMs, ASMs and Passengers. For more historical data, see Traffic on the BTS website. See Seasonal Adjustment for methodology and additional explanation. See data for airline data since 2000 as well as seasonally-adjusted data for rail, transit, pipelines, trucking and waterways.