ALTA Member Airlines Passenger Traffic Grows 7.0% in March

Miami, May 9, 2011 – The Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) announced that its member airlines carried 11.6 million passengers in March, up 7.0% from the previous year.

In addition to passengers increasing 7.0%, traffic (RPK) grew 9.9% and capacity (ASK) increased 3.1%. The load factor jumped to 74.6%, 4.6 percentage points higher than in March 2010.

The number of passengers carried year-to-date (January to March) increased 3.6% versus the same period of the previous year, reaching 34.4 million passengers. During the aforementioned period, traffic (RPK) rose 4.6%, capacity (ASK) increased 1.8%, and the passenger load factor reached 76.0%, 2.0 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Freight ton kilometers increased 8.3% in March and 7.5% year to date.

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Reporting airlines: Aerolineas Argentinas (and Austral), Aeromexico, Avianca, Copa Airlines, GOL, LAN Group (including Aires as of January), Mexicana (until August 2010), Mexicana Click (until August 2010), Pluna, Grupo TACA, TAM, TAM Mercosur, Varig Log, and Volaris.