WestJet says it showed a 53.2-per-cent increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) last month.
Its RPMs soared to 201,025,929 from 131,201,929 in January 2001, while available seat miles grew 54.4 per cent to 308,608,026 last month, up from 199,876,620 in January 2001.
WestJet's load factor for January sank slightly year over year, to 65.1 per cent compared with 65.6 per cent in January 2001.
“I am very pleased with our traffic results for January,” said Clive Beddoe, executive chairman, president and CEO of WestJet.
“The slight decrease in load factor we experienced was expected, and is attributable to the introduction of three new destination cities (Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Thompson) to our route network in December.
“We anticipate that our load factor on these new routes will build towards our system average as other markets have done in the past."
Headquartered in Calgary, WestJet (WJA-TSE) serves 21 Canadian cities with a fleet of 28 Boeing 737 aircraft. Meanwhile, Air Canada has reported a net loss for 2001 of $1.25 billion or $10.43 per share.
This compares to a net loss of $82 million or $0.69 per share in the prior year, which included July to December 2000 results for Canadian Airlines operations.
In comparison, WestJet’s financial results for 2001, released last month, indicated annual profits of $37.2 million or 81 cents a share, up from $30.3 million or 72 cents in 2000.
Air Canada president and CEO Robert Milton attributed his airline’s heavy losses to an “unprecedented decline” in business travel due to the economic downturn, as well as the impact of Sept. 11.
