Airline Maniac

After weeks of bad news in the airline industry, some good news is finally hitting the press.

Southwest Airlines, America’s largest low-cost carrier, announced their May results recently. They carried 7% more passengers in May 2008 than May 2007 with only a 5% increase in capacity. This increase came with a 0.9% year-over-year increase in load factor.

Airtran Airways, another large low-cost carrier in the US, also announced positive results for May. Airtran’s traffic surged 18% year-over-year with a 14% capacity increase. Load factor increased by 2.9% .

In these troubling times for airlines, these positive results hopefully signify that well-managed airlines can overcome the frightening cost of fuel.

In the last week, two major low-cost carriers deferred many of their future aircraft deliveries.

On May 27, Jetblue Airways announced that it was deferring delivery of 21 Airbus A320’s. The aircraft are now scheduled to be delivered between 2014 and 2015. For 2008,  Jetblue plans small growth around 4%.

Three days later, on May 30, Airtran Airways released a similar announcement. In Airtran’s press release, they deferred 18 Boeing 737 aircraft. The new aircraft are now seeing delivery dates in 2013 and 2014. Airtran plans to maintain flat growth through at least 2009.

With the airline industry sinking each day due to fuel costs, it is likely that many other carriers will catch on and defer aircraft deliveries themselves.  Look for a lot less planes in the sky soon!