The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has reported that U.S. airlines’ systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service load factor – a measure of the use of airline capacity – rose to 84.2 percent in July, seasonally adjusted, rising for the third consecutive month. Seasonal adjustment allows the comparing of monthly load factors to all other months.
For July, U.S. airlines reported seasonally-adjusted all-time monthly highs in passenger enplanements, Revenue Passenger-Miles (RPMs) and Available Seat-Miles (ASMs). Systemwide passenger enplanements in July (66.7 million) exceeded the previous record in June 2015 by 0.8 percent. Systemwide RPMs in July (76.4 billion) exceeded the previous record in June 2015 by 1.8 percent. Systemwide ASMs in July (90.8 billion) exceeded the previous record in June 2015 by 0.8 percent.
The July load factor of 84.2 was the second highest of all-time, below the all-time seasonally-adjusted high of 84.5 in January 2014. 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 rose in July following two consecutive months of growth. The load factor rose from June to July because passenger travel grew faster (1.8 percent increase in RPMs) than system capacity (0.8 percent increase in ASMs).