Showed Strong Results Despite Weather Challenges Late In The Month

December was apparently a very good month for US Airways. The carrier released December, fourth quarter, and full-year 2010 traffic results on Wednesday, and the data indicates that mainline revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for the month were 4.7 billion, up 5.7 percent versus December 2009. Mainline capacity was 5.9 billion available seat miles (ASMs), up 3.7 percent versus December 2009. Mainline passenger load factor was 80.8 percent, a record for the month of December and up 1.5 points versus December 2009.

US Airways’ President Scott Kirby said, “Our December consolidated (mainline and Express) passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) and total revenue per available seat mile each increased approximately 5 percent versus the same period last year.

“The last two weeks of December presented a challenging operational environment due to snowstorms in Europe and throughout the northeastern part of the U.S. The US Airways team did a terrific job of taking care of our customers during this holiday travel period, and got the system back up and running quickly following the storm. In fact, one day after the New York blizzard, our operation was back up and completing more than 99 percent of our schedule. Despite the adverse weather conditions over the holidays, thanks to these efforts we posted our best December on-time departure, arrival and baggage handling performance since 2005.

“Simply put, our team ran an outstanding operation throughout the entire year and we enter 2011 from a very solid operational and financial position,” Kirby concluded.

For the month of December, US Airways’ preliminary on-time performance as reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was 78.7 percent with a completion factor of 97.7 percent.

US Airways Group includes the branded carrier, as well as US Airways Express flights operated by wholly owned subsidiaries PSA Airlines and Piedmont Airlines.

FMI: www.usairways.com