Southwest Airlines June Load Factor Rises To 87.4%

Southwest Airlines Co. LUV disclosed that its load factor in June increased to 87.4 percent from 86.2 percent in the year-ago month. The company claimed it a record for the month of June.

Southwest Airlines said it flew 11.5 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in June representing an increase of 6.8 percent from the 10.8 billion RPMs flown in the previous year month. Similarly, its Available seat miles (ASMs) advanced 5.4 percent to 13.1 billion in June from 12.5 billion recorded in the preceding year.

The Company indicated that it continued to expect its second quarter operating revenue per ASM (RASM) to increase less than 1.0 percent compared with second quarter of the last year.

For the second quarter, the low-cost air carrier's load factor grew by 70 basis points to 83.2 percent from 82.5 percent in the corresponding period of the last year. While RPM grew 7.8 percent, its ASM witnessed a growth of 6.9 percent in the year-ago quarter.