ALTA Member Airlines Passenger Traffic Increases 2.1% in July

Miami, September 7, 2011 – The Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) announced that its member airlines carried 12.7 million passengers in July, up 2.1% from the previous year.

Traffic (RPK) grew 1.5% and capacity (ASK) declined 2.8%, raising the load factor to 79.4%, 3.3 percentage points higher than in July 2010.

“The July results are significantly affected by Mexicana’s exit from the market,” said Alex de Gunten, ALTA’s Executive Director. “Excluding Mexicana, passenger growth in July would be 11.2% with an increase in traffic of 11.6% and capacity at 6.8%.”

The number of passengers carried year-to-date (January to July) increased 4.1% versus the same period of the previous year, reaching 80.4 million passengers. During the aforementioned period traffic (RPK) rose 5.3%, capacity (ASK) increased 0.3%, and the passenger load factor reached 75.6%, 3.6 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Freight ton kilometers increased 3.3% in July and 4.4% year to date.