Downturn Ended - Airports packed

[RVR800]

More than a million holidaymakers were set to defy fears of terrorism by jetting off to sunnier climes while 20 million people will take to the roads up and down the country.

[brabazon]

I'll be one of 20 million hitting the road. Can't blame the million for going for warmth though. However, don't think you can read the figures as indicating that the downturn's over. Let's wait for the January traffic stats.

[gotajob4us?]

Dirt cheap tickets get bums on seats.
But the yeild goes through the floor.

Everyone forgets thier fears if the can get a seat for the fraction of what they would have had to have paid with this time last year.

[willryderdaley]

Chaps....the airline's just want to downsize.

They almost can't give a s*** what the upturn outlook is at the moment.

Wait until all the mergers are announced in the next financial year.
<img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[whatshouldiuse]

And at LGA yesterday, a 5 hour line just to check-in at American Airlines. Add to this a 2 hour wait at security as EVERY Christmas present was unwrapped, it made for a very jovial start to the holidays assuming you didn't have a plane to catch.


Who in their right minds would try and take fully-wrapped Xmas gifts through security after 9/11? Sort of blows the theory of showing up 2 hours before your flight !!!

Whatshouldiuse next ?

[polzin]

November's airline numbers are in for the USA. Revenues down 23%, profits down 40%. Get ready for several airlines to go bankrupt in the first few months of 2002. I promise!

I am now Y2 compliant.

[akerosid]

Presumably US Airways are at the top of the list for collapse; reports I've been hearing suggest they are in more serious trouble than others.

Besides them, who are most likely? America West? Northwest?

[Donkey Duke]

There are alot of airlines that are "close." USair has been teetering, AMWest is low on cash, and Continental, beleive it or not, could be considered close. What I have heard is that Continental is supposedly losing $6 million a day
but----they are running out of lines of credit because they "lease" all of their planes etc. Hence they have nothing to fall back on. I have also heard that Delta is waiting until they falter, which would allow Delta to get around the Northwest Airlines merger Veto rights if CO goes bankrupt. Sound complex? Tell me about it. Sure, there are probably some wounded airlines out there, but there are also some vultures, too.

Thanks. Donkey Duke <img src="cool.gif" border="0"> <img src="cool.gif" border="0"> <img src="cool.gif" border="0">

[Best Western]

For insight on how European carriers are doing, have a look at the weekly passegner statistics published at the association of European Airlines. <a href="http://www.aea.be" target="_blank">www.aea.be</a>

Whats bad news is that intra european flights are not recovering over last year..

<a href="http://www.aea.be/3pressrelease/2001/TRAFFICUPDATE/Pr01-43_tabs.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aea.be/3pressrelease/2001/TRAFFICUPDATE/Pr01-43_tabs.pdf</a>

For the November results by carrier, with some bad news for a lot of the carriers, especially Alitalia.

<a href="http://www.aea.be/3pressrelease/2001/TRAFFICUPDATE/Pr01-44_tabs.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aea.be/3pressrelease/2001/TRAFFICUPDATE/Pr01-44_tabs.pdf</a>

Entering the third month after the September 11th disaster, European airlines traffic figures continued to look very weak indeed. Total passenger volume for November was down 19.6% on last year, following an October figure of minus 21.2%.
The North Atlantic market continued to be the worst affected, with a drop of 31.5%. Far East/Australia loads were down 20.3%, and in Europe the drop was 14.7%.

The figures make an interesting comparison with the situation following the Gulf War in 1991. Corresponding figures for March of that year, which was the second full month into the crisis, show very similar traffic losses in Europe and to the Far East (13.5% and 20.5% respectively), but a much lower impact, of minus 9.7%, on the North Atlantic.

In contrast to the Gulf War aftermath, in November capacity on offer was strongly reduced, with 14.1% fewer seat-kilometres operated compared to November 2000. This followed a 7.8% decrease in October.

Consequently, the impact on load factors was somewhat softened, with a 4.4 percentage point loss, down to 64.4% . October's load factor loss was 10.9 points.

[Stagnation Point]

Intersting but how does the drop in pax compare to the reduction in capacity.