Aerospace |
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Last week marked the continuation of strong demand in west European airlines. For the month of June, the airlines posted a .9 percent year-on-year rise in passenger traffic. For the busiest routes, across the North Atlantic and to the Far East and Australia, the increases were 10 and 10.2 percent respectively, while traffic on European services rose 9.4 percent. And this was posted before the two busiest months of summer -- July and August. According to the Association of European Airlines, while capacity increased only six percent, the load factor improved from 2.6 percentage points to 75.5 percent, apparently the highest figure ever reported in the month of June. Since each additional passenger on an airplane does not necessarily equal an exact increase in fuel consumption and other operating costs, AEA officials claim a load factor like this is great news for airlines. In the period from January to June, passenger traffic went up 10.4 percent compared to the same period in 1996. International freight also increased over the period, rising 4.4 percent year-on-year in June and 3.5 percent from January to June, compared to the same period in 1996. |
