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How often do you hear an Alaska Airlines flight attendant say "we have a very full flight today"?
The flight attendant is telling the truth: Alaska's flights are fuller. In February, the airline's passenger load factor (the percentage of available seats occupied by fare-paying passengers) rose to 73.7 percent from 70.7 percent a year ago.
The airline, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), reported traffic increased by 6.4 percent to 1.26 billion passenger miles from 1.18 billion in 2005. The airline carried 1.2 million passengers last month, up from 1.17 million a year earlier.
Horizon Air's load factor also rose, to 71.5 percent, compared with 67.4 percent a year ago.
Regarding the airline's on-time performance, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Air Travel Consumer Report" for January released this week, Alaska Air was No. 18 of the 19 airlines surveyed by the government. Alaska's on-time performance in January was 71.2 percent of flights arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. The 19 airlines surveyed averaged 78.8 percent of on-time arrivals.
Alaska's on-time performance bettered only JetBlue, which recorded a 70.6 on-time performance average. Hawaiian Airlines topped the January list, with its flights arriving 95.9 percent on time.
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