In response to the growing weakness in demand, Iberia carried out additional adjustments in the schedule that led to a capacity reduction of 7.7%.
Madrid – Traffic (RPK) decreased by 10.6% and the load factor stood at 77.1% (2.5 points down on last year) improving its performance with respect to September and October. Moreover, the effect of a lower occupancy was offset by the increase in yields, partly benefited from the euro-dollar exchange, despite a 13.5% growth in the average stage length.
In the long haul, the load factor reached 83.2% (-3.0 points) with a 5.3% fall in capacity (ASK) and 8.7% drop in traffic, which now represents a 64.5% of total RPK (1.4 points more than in 2007). In the current difficult economic environment, flights to the South Atlantic performed well; thus, capacity decreased by 2.2% and traffic reduced by 3.3%, standing the load factor at 84.6%. In the Mid Atlantic, the load factor reached 85.1%, with an 8.6% drop in traffic and a 4.2% decrease in capacity. North Atlantic was the most affected sector with reductions in capacity and traffic of 15.2% and 20.7% respectively, which led to a load factor of 75.9%.
Photo: Iberia