Passenger traffic was 4 percent below last year on 3 percent lower capacity. Passenger load factor in
September decreased by 1 percentage point to 83.1 percent.
North Atlantic load factor increased by 3.3 percentage points to 89.6 percent. Traffic was 10 percent
lower than last year, while capacity was trimmed by 12 percent, mainly on the Canadian destinations.
With traffic and capacity on the Asia/Pacific route area only 1 percent lower than last year, load factor
was virtually stable at 89.4 percent. Volumes in the Asia / Pacific route area have recovered from SARS.
Passenger load factor on the Central and South Atlantic routes decreased by 4.3 percentage points to
73.9 percent. Traffic decreased by 9 percent, while capacity was 3 percent lower. The decrease in traffic
is mainly the result of disappointing market demand on the Central Atlantic part of this route area.
Cargo traffic increased by 4 percent year-on-year on 6 percent higher capacity. Cargo load factor
decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 72.9 percent.
Traffic on the Asia Pacific routes was up 12 percent, slightly behind the capacity increase of 14 percent.
As a result the cargo load factor on this route area decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 85.0 percent.
The increase in capacity is mainly the result of additional frequencies following the introduction of the
new 747-400ER freighters.
North Atlantic cargo traffic decreased by 3 percent, on flat capacity. Load factor decreased by 0.5
percentage points to 69.9 percent.
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