WestJet revenue passenger miles rise 49% but load factor descends to 65% Canadian Press Tuesday, March 11, 2003 CALGARY (CP) - Air Canada carried fewer passengers in February, while two smaller competitors reported stronger travel numbers. Montreal-based Air Canada said Tuesday its mainline carrier flew 7.9 per cent fewer revenue passenger miles during the month - 2.8 million, down from nearly 3.1 million last year. Capacity fell by 4.1 per cent, resulting in a load factor of 73.7 per cent, down from 76.8 per cent in February 2002. Meanwhile, discount rival WestJet's rapidly growing fleet increased its revenue passenger miles by 48.9 per cent last month, compared with a year ago, but endured a decline in the percentage of seats that were filled with travellers. Elsewhere, discount carrier Jetsgo reported its load factor in February rose to 72 per cent, from 69 per cent in January, as it flew 64.4 million revenue passenger miles on capacity of 89.3 million available seat miles. Rob Peterson, Air Canada's chief financial officer, said air travel markets in February "again saw much higher competitive capacity, particularly from low-cost carriers." "Our international markets, very robust for close to a year, were negatively impacted this month by depressed demand reflecting the threat of war." At WestJet, the Calgary-based discount airline said Tuesday it flew 296.5 million revenue passenger miles in February, up from 199.2 million in February 2002. Available seat miles, the carrier's overall capacity, grew 56.7 per cent to 455.2 million, leaving WestJet with a load factor of 65.1 per cent. That compares with 68.5 per cent of seats that were filled in the year-earlier period. For the first two months of the year, the load factor declined to 63.1 per cent from 66.8 per cent. "We are very pleased by the 49 per cent increase in the revenue passenger miles in February, year over year, particularly given the current woes of the industry," said Clive Beddoe, chairman and CEO of WestJet (TSX:WJA), which flies between 26 cities. Last week, WestJet - which has said it plans to increase capacity by 50 per cent this year after 55 per cent growth in 2002 - raised ticket prices by up to $20 for a round-trip ticket in response to soaring jet-fuel costs. Shares in WestJet (TSX:WJA) rose 21 cents to $16.90 on the Toronto stock market. Air Canada shares (TSX:AC) fell 14 cents to $2.79. Montreal-based Jetsgo, which began flying last June, serves 12 Canadian destinations and also flies to New York and Florida. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************