Shares of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET) gained in excess of 2% to close the Jan 8, 2015 trading session at $14.24, following traffic data reported by the company for the month of Dec 2014.
Traffic – measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) – came in at approximately 952 million, up 3% from 926 million recorded in the comparable month a year ago. On a year-over-year basis, capacity (available seat miles/ASMs) climbed 8%.
Meanwhile, the load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers decreased to 75% from 79% in Dec 2013. More than 1.8 million passengers traveled with the carrier in the final month of 2014. However, this was 3% lower than the comparable figure recorded a year ago.
For 2014, RPMs came in at approximately 11.5 billion, up 12% from the comparable 2013 figure. Capacity for the year climbed 9% to 14.6 billion. Load factor climbed 2% year over year to 78%. In 2014, 5% more passengers flew with the carrier compared to 21.5 million in 2013.
Republic Airways, like many other carriers, is benefiting from low fuel costs. The benefit is expected to sustain in 2015 as well.
Apart from Republic Airways, Spirit Airlines (SAVE) also reported traffic data for Dec 2014. Traffic at the low-cost airline company climbed a significant 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. Capacity improved over 20% in the month.
Zacks Rank
Republic Airways currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the airline space are Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Southwest Airlines (LUV). Both carriers sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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