Qantas has released its latest operating statistics for January, showing that Group load factor declined by 0.6 percentage points to 81.2 per cent as domestic loads on both Qantas and Jetstar services declined.
Qantas domestic services saw a 4.8 per cent fall in passengers carried during the month, while capacity was down by 1.4 per cent, which resulted in revenue seat factor falling by 2.6 percentage points to 78.4 per cent. QantasLink also saw its load factor decline, down by 2.3 points to 62.2 per cent as passenger volumes fell by 0.6 per cent and capacity grew by one per cent. Jetstar’s domestic load factor was also down three points to 81.8 per cent, driven by a 6.8 per cent increase in capacity, while passenger volumes increased by 0.4 per cent.
International services appeared to fare better, with Qantas recording a 1.1 point increase in load factor to 84.5 per cent, but this was driven by a 10.3 per cent fall in capacity, as passenger volumes fell by 16.4 per cent. Jetstar International saw a 78.4 per cent increase in passenger numbers, which appeared to be directly related to a 27.1 per cent increase in capacity, resulting in a 0.5 point increase in revenue seat factor to 78.5 per cent.
The company also gave an update on yields, showing that yield excluding foreign exchange for the financial year to January 2010 was down 6.1 per cent compared to the same period in the prior year. However, it noted that Qantas’s international yields have been improving month on month between December and January.
