Delta and American see falls in passenger numbers
Both Delta Air Lines and American Airlines reported drops in passenger numbers for September.
Delta, the world’s biggest airline, saw a fall in passenger numbers of 5.2% to 15.1m compared to September last year.
American saw its passenger numbers fall by 3.5% to 6.5m passengers.
Both airlines reported increases in load factors, Delta by 2.5 points to 83.3% and American by 2.8 points to 79.4%.
However, both point to capacity cuts – 6.7% in Delta’s case and 6.9% in American’s.
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The results are broadly in line with other carriers reporting their traffic and capacity statistics.
Most international airlines are reporting an uptick in load factors – the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available – due to cuts in capacity.
Both Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines have reported their September figures which were up on last year.
However, both said pressures on yields continued to squeeze profits.