Allegiant Airlines reports another jump in passenger traffic

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Airlines reported another big jump in passenger traffic in June although the largest airline at McCarran International Airport saw its traffic numbers fall.

Southwest Airlines, reported a 2.1 percent decrease in revenue passenger miles in June, and a 0.6 percent decrease for the second quarter of 2009.

The airline reported passenger traffic results this week for its entire network, not Las Vegas, specifically.

Allegiant Air, a leisure-focused airline based in Las Vegas, however, said its passenger numbers increased 32.2 percent in June to 496,364.

For the second quarter of 2009, scheduled traffic increased 31.3 percent to nearly 1.4 million passengers for Allegiant's entire network, which includes flights to Las Vegas, Florida, Arizona and California.

The airline's load factor, the percentage of full seats on a given flight, fell 2.5 percentage points to 91.5 percent in June.

The average stage length increased 1.7 percent to 882 miles, which is important because longer flights generally cost the airline more money.

According to Southwest, the airline flew 6.7 billion revenue passenger miles in June, and 19.7 billion for the quarter.

The number of passengers carried by Southwest decreased 6.4 percent for the month to 7.7 million and was down 5.5 percent for the year to 22.7 million.

Southwest also reduced available seat miles 3.8 percent for the month and 3 percent for the quarter.

While business was down, the length of flights increased, which can add to costs.

In June, the average length of a Southwest haul was up 4.6 percent to 879 miles. For the second quarter it was up 5.1 percent to 868 miles.