Our Miami-based sister publication, AvNews offers a snapshot of the latest route news from the Latin Americas and Caribbean. This week, the outlook is particularly positive: ALTA reports February traffic rises; TAM develops closer ties with Continental and Delta reports traffic gains in March.
ALTA Records February Traffic Rises
The Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA)'s more than 30 member airlines carried 10.4 million passengers in February - up 18.8% compared to the same month last year, according to its latest figures.
RPKs were up 15.1% on a 5.3% increase in ASKs, pushing the load factor to 74.5% (up 6.4% over last year). The greatest growth, however was in cargo, with FTKs up 37.3%.
Year to-date (January 2010- April 2010), RPKs were up 15.1%, ASKs rose by 6.8% with load factors up 5.5 percentage points to 76.0%, and FTKs also increased by 33.7%.
During February, domestic traffic attributed to widespread growth, with RPKs up 23.2% (where?) followed by Europe, which saw a rise of 17.2%, Latin America (up 10.9%) and North America (up 5.2%).
TAM's Next Step to Star Integration
Pictured: Star Alliance CEO, Jaan Albrecht and TAM CEO David Barioni announced last year that TAM will be the next Star Member. Latin America will no longer be a 'white spot' on the map for the alliance, which currently has no links there.
Soon to be joining the Star Alliance, Brazil's largest airline (on the basis of passenger capacity) has signed a reciprocal frequent flyer programme with Continental Airlines, who joined the Star Alliance from SkyTeam last year. As of April 6th, frequent flyer members can earn and redeem miles flown on either rcarrier. TAM's vice president, Paolo Castello Blanco, stated: "This is another important step for our integration with Star Alliance.
Delta's March Traffic Climbs 3%
System traffic in March increased 3.0% on a 1.6% decrease in capacity during March y/y with system load factor increasing 3.7 points to 84.2%.
International traffic led the growth with 3.3% y/y on a 2.8% decrease in capacity, pushing the international load factor up 4.8 points to 82.2%.
Domestic traffic increased 2.8% y/y on a 0.8% decrease in capacity pushing the domestic load factor up three points to 85.4%. Latin American traffic (RPMs) was up 5.1% on 4.0% capacity growth, moving the load up to 78.4%.
This was the second growth market after the Pacific, which grew 14.2% on 11.9% capacity growth with a load factor of 87.1%, up 1.7 points y/y.
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