U.S. Carriers Monthly Market Share

Commentary:

U.S. Carrier RPMs were up 3.1% during the first half of 2007. Capacity was up 2.5% during the same period increasing the industry average load factor to 80%.

Network carrier load factors are up to a record 81.8% on passenger growth of 1.5% and virtually no capacity increases. Both Continental and Northwest increased capacity in the first six months of 2007 while American cut capacity by 3%.

Low-Cost carriers represent nearly 70% of the industry capacity growth during the first six months of 2007. Load Factors fell nearly 1 point for LCCs as capacity growth of 11% outpaced passenger growth of 9.7%. Southwest represents over 56% of total U.S. low-cost capacity, however stronger growth from AirTran, Frontier and jetBlue is slowly chipping away at the low-cost leaders share dominance.

Regional carriers maintained load factors matching demand to 3.5% capacity growth.