BTS Statistics Release May 2016 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 – remained unchanged at 83.4 percent in May, seasonally adjusted, from April. Seasonal adjustment allows the comparing of monthly load factors to all other months. 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 remained unchanged from April (83.4) to May (83.4) because passenger travel grew only marginally faster (0.8 percent increase in RPMs) than system capacity (0.7 percent increase in ASMs).

Trends:

Seasonally-adjusted

Systemwide load factor (83.4) was down 1.3 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (84.8) reached in October 2015. Domestic load factor (85.2) was down 1.0 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (86.1) reached in October 2015. International load factor (79.5) was down 3.6 points from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (83.1) reached in March 2013.

Systemwide RPMs (77.7 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.8 percent from April 2016. Domestic RPM (55.1 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 1.2 percent from April 2016. International RPMs (22.6 billion) were down 2.4 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (23.1 billion) reached in July 2015.

Systemwide ASMs (93.1 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.7 percent from April 2016. Domestic ASMs (64.7 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.7 percent from March 2016. International ASMs (28.4 billion) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.6 percent from April 2016.

Systemwide passenger enplanements (68.9 million) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 1.2 percent from October 2015. Domestic passenger enplanements (60.3 million) reached a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 1.3 percent from October 2015. International passenger enplanements (8.6 million) were down 0.1 percent from the all-time seasonally-adjusted high (8.6 million) reached in December 2015.

Seasonally adjusted trends are for the time period January 2000 to present. Additional data, including domestic and international numbers, can be found on the seasonally-adjusted data  page.

Unadjusted

Systemwide load factor (83.8) was down 1.2 points from the all-time May high (85.0) reached in 2014. Domestic load factor (85.9) was down 0.4 points from the all-time May high (86.3) reached in 2014. International load factor (79.3) was down 3.6 points from the all-time May high (82.8) reached in 2013.     

Systemwide RPMs (80.8 billion) reached an all-time May high, up 3.6 percent from the previous high (78.0 billion) reached in 2015. Domestic RPMs (57.1 billion) reached an all-time May high, up 5.3 percent from the previous high (54.3 billion) reached in 2015. International RPMs (23.7 billion) were down -0.4 percent from the all-time May high (23.7 billion) reached in 2015.

Systemwide ASMs (96.4 billion) reached an all-time May high, up 3.9 percent from the previous high (92.8 billion) reached in 2015. Domestic ASMs (66.5 billion) reached an all-time May high, up 4.9 percent from the previous high (63.4 billion) reached in 2015. International ASMs (29.8 billion) reached an all-time May high, up 1.5 percent from the previous high (29.4 billion) reached in 2015.

Systemwide passenger enplanements (71.5 million) reached an all-time May high, up 3.7 percent from the previous high (68.9 million) reached in 2015. Domestic passenger enplanements (62.7 million) reached an all-time May high, up 4.1 percent from the previous high (60.3 million) reached in 2015. International passenger enplanements (8.8 million) reached an all-time May high, up 1.0 percent from the previous high (8.7 million) reached in 2015.

Source: BTS, Thursday, August 11, 2016
Contact: Dave Smallen
Tel:  202-366-5568

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