Southwest Airlines Posts Impressive January Traffic Figures
Zacks Investment Research | Feb 07, 2018 11:37PM ET
Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) has reported a substantial rise in traffic figures for January. Traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs) rose 4% to around 9.73 billion in the month. Meanwhile, capacity or available seat miles (ASMs) inched up 1.9% to 12.5 billion.
Load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) improved 150 basis points to 77.8% in the month as traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion. Additionally, passenger count increased 6% to 11.99 billion.
The robust traffic report comes close on the heels of an impressive performance dished out by the company in the final quarter of 2017, having reported better-than-expected earnings per share and revenues. Moreover, earnings and revenues improved significantly year over year. Robust growth in passenger revenues on the back of strong demand for air travel, aided the top line.
For the first quarter of 2018, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company expects revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to rise between 1% and 2%. First-quarter unit costs excluding fuel and oil expense, profit-sharing expense and special items are estimated to grow in the band of 0.5-1.5%. While economic fuel costs for the period are predicted in the range of $2.10-$2.15 per gallon. For 2018, the metric is anticipated in the same range, reflecting a 2% increase from the year-ago figure. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here .
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