Alaska Air Group Traffic Rises In October, Load Factor Flat

Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) reported traffic statistics for October. Traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), increased 2.4% to 4.47 billion.

Also, on a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) rose 2.4% to 5.34 billion. Meanwhile, load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers remained flat year over year at 83.8% as traffic growth was commensurate with capacity expansion.

In the first 10 months of 2018, the carrier generated RPMs of 45.75 billion (up 5.3% year over year) and ASMs of 54.59 billion (up 6.3% year over year). However, load factor declined 70 basis points to 83.8%.

Similar to the October traffic report, passenger revenues boosted the company’s third-quarter results, released last month. The metric, accounting for bulk of the top line (92.4%), climbed 4% year over year, leading to 5% year-over-year growth in the company’s revenues. (Read more: Alaska Air Group Q3 Earnings Top Estimates, Fall Y/Y)

Alaska Air Group, Inc. Price

Alaska Air Group, Inc. Price | Alaska Air Group, Inc. Quote

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Alaska Air Group carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the airline space are Air France-KLM SA (OTC:AFLYY) , International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG) SA (OTC:ICAGY) and Spirit Airlines, Inc. (NYSE:SAVE) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Air France-KLM and Spirit Airlines have surged more than 28% and 40%, respectively, in the past six months. Meanwhile, International Consolidated Airlines has an impressive earnings history having outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 92.9%.

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