Continental Airlines Reports March 2005 Operational Performance

Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) today reported a March consolidated (mainline plus regional) load factor of 80.5 percent, 5.6 points above last year’s March consolidated load factor. The carrier reported a mainline load factor of 81.3 percent, 5.5 points above last year’s March mainline load factor, and a domestic mainline load factor of 82.2 percent, 7.3 points above March 2004. All three were operational records for March. In addition, the airline had an international mainline March load factor of 80.1 percent, 2.9 points above March 2004.

Despite bad weather impacting its hub cities of New York, Houston and Cleveland throughout March, Continental had relatively few flight cancellations and maintained a systemwide mainline completion factor of 99.7 percent. The company recorded a U.S. Department of Transportation on- time arrival rate of 72.9 percent.

In March 2005, Continental flew 6.9 billion consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 8.6 billion consolidated available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a traffic increase of 14.8 percent and a capacity increase of 7.0 percent as compared to March 2004. In March 2005, Continental flew 6.2 billion mainline RPMs and 7.6 billion mainline ASMs, resulting in a mainline traffic increase of 13.5 percent and a mainline capacity increase of 5.8 percent as compared to March 2004. Domestic mainline traffic was 3.6 billion RPMs in March 2005, up 10.8 percent from March 2004, and domestic mainline capacity was 4.3 billion ASMs, up 0.9 percent from March 2004.

For the month of March 2005, consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) is estimated to have increased between 4.0 and 5.0 percent compared to March 2004, while mainline passenger RASM is estimated to have increased between 4.5 and 5.5 percent. For February 2005, consolidated passenger RASM increased 2.1 percent compared to February 2004 and mainline passenger RASM increased 3.0 percent. March 2005 year-over-year passenger RASM was positively impacted by the Easter holiday occurring in March this year while it occurred in April last year. Continental estimates that March 2005 consolidated and mainline passenger RASM both benefited by approximately 2.0 to 3.0 points due to the shift of Easter. The Easter shift is expected to have a corresponding negative impact on April year-over-year passenger RASM.

Continental ended the quarter with unrestricted cash and short-term investments of approximately $1.38 billion.
Continental’s regional operations (Continental Express) set a record March load factor of 74.2 percent, 6.4 points above last year’s March load factor. Regional RPMs were 746.1 million and regional ASMs were 1,005.0 million in March 2005, resulting in a traffic increase of 27.6 percent and a capacity increase of 16.5 percent versus March 2004.

April 4, 2005   Posted in: Airlines & Railways