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Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) - free report >>
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Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) - free report >>
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Southwest Airlines (LUV) December Traffic & Load Factor Up
Southwest Airlines Company (LUV - Free Report) has reported a substantial rise in traffic figures for December. Traffic (measured in Revenue Passenger Miles or RPMs) rose 2.6% to around 10.71 billion in the month. Meanwhile, Available Seat Miles (ASMs) inched up 1.8% to 12.87 billion. Load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) improved 70 basis points (bps) to 83.3% in the month as traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion.
On a year-to-date basis, Southwest Airlines witnessed a 3.4% rise in RPMs to 129.04 billion. Also, ASMs grew 3.6% to 153.81 billion. As a result, the load factor decreased 10 bps to 83.9%. Additionally, passenger count in 2017 rose 3.9% to 157.68 billion.
The company continues to expect fourth-quarter operating revenue per ASM (RASM) to increase 1-2% year over year. Unit costs (excluding fuel and oil expenses, special items plus profit-sharing expenses) in the fourth quarter are expected to be flat up to 1.5%.
The stock has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter 2017 earnings being revised 1.2% upward in the last 60 days, evidently boosting a positive sentiment around the stock.
Results in detail will be available on Jan 25 when Southwest Airlines will report the quarterly earnings results.
Southwest Airlines Company Price
Southwest Airlines Company Price | Southwest Airlines Company Quote
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Southwest Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the airline space are Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY - Free Report) , Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. and SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Shares of Deutsche Lufthansa, Gol Linhas and SkyWest have soared more than 100%, 200% and 45%, respectively, in 2017.
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