US Airways, Delta Lead Traffic Decline on Storm Cancellations

US Airways Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. led the six largest U.S. carriers to a 1.7 percent drop in February traffic as storms caused thousands of flight cancellations.

US Airways had the widest traffic decline at 4.7 percent, and said the storms reduced its revenue by about $30 million last month. UAL Corp.’s United Airlines said yesterday its traffic slid 0.5 percent in that time, and that the storms lowered revenue by $40 million.

US Airways, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines Inc. and other big carriers scrubbed a total of at least 20,000 flights in February because of storms, according to figures provided by the airlines. Those cancellations will cost the group at least $100 million in lost revenue, estimates Helane Becker, an analyst at Jesup & Lamont in New York.

“That won’t derail the recovery at all,” Becker said. “The underlying business was still fairly strong for February.” Traffic for the group rose in January for the first time since May 2008 in a sign travel demand is starting to grow.

Continental said its revenue for each passenger flown a mile increased 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent last month, exceeding the 4 percent to 5 percent projection of Michael Linenberg, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York. Scrubbing flights and booking passengers on other planes resulted in a 1 percentage point gain in unit revenue for the month, Continental said.

Airlines canceled about 6,000 flights on Feb. 10, representing 12 percent of all scheduled trips in the U.S. that day, as the Washington area received more than 10 inches of snow that forced both Dulles and Reagan National airports to close. Thousands more were canceled in the days before and after.

The group scrubbed at least 5,000 flights in early February during separate storms in Chicago and Washington, and other bad weather in the Southeast at the end of the month forced airlines to cancel at least 1,500 flights.

The following table shows the largest U.S. airlines, ranked by traffic, and their February gain or decline in miles flown by paying passengers on main jet operations compared with a year earlier. The figures are from the carriers’ reports.

Source : businessweek.com