Passenger Miles Rise for AirCal

AirCal, which has been acquired by American Airlines, said its April traffic was 226 million revenue passenger miles, an increase of 41.7% from the year-earlier figure of 159.5 million. A revenue passenger mile is one paying customer carried one mile.

Available seat-miles for the month totaled 378.7 million, up 21.5% from 311.8 million the previous April. The load factor--the percentage of seats filled--rose to 59.6% from 51.1%. Passenger boardings during the month rose 20.5% to 472,879 from 392,479.

For the first four months this year, AirCal’s revenue passenger miles rose 38% to 846.2 million from 613 million in the same period last year, its available seat miles increased 34% to 1.52 billion from 1.13 billion, its load factor rose to 55.8% from 54.2% and its passenger boardings were up 17.2% to 1.77 million from 1.51 million.

American Airlines’ acquisition of AirCal was approved by the Department of Transportation on March 30, and American Airlines acquired all AirCal common stock on April 30. The integration of the two airlines is expected to be accomplished by July 1.