Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

... seems the news around the edges is all positive for capacity increases in 2013 ...




SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska Airlines' parent company said Wednesday that its traffic rose 5.1 percent last month as its number of available seats grew.

Alaska, which is run by Alaska Air Group Inc., reported a 5 percent increase in capacity compared with a year earlier. Airlines can expand capacity by either adding flights or using larger planes.

Overall passenger numbers went up, but the carrier's occupancy rate — how full planes are — stayed at 84 percent.

The results were almost identical when including Alaska's regional carriers. Overall, traffic rose 5.1 percent on an identical increase in the number of available seats.

So far this year, traffic for the company is up 7.6 percent compared with the first nine months of 2011. Capacity is up by 5.5 percent, while the Seattle company's occupancy rate is 1.7 percent higher at 86.1 percent.

Alaska Air Group shares rose 88 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $36.56 in afternoon trading.

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Upcoming deliveries of Airbus A330-200 aircraft will enable Hawaiian Airlines to take the unusual step of upgauging its proposed Auckland route five months before its launch.

The carrier says bookings have been so strong for the three-times-weekly service—the only New Zealand flight in the carrier’s network—that it will put A330s on the route when it debuts in March instead of the smaller Boeing 767-300ERs it said it would use when the Honolulu-Auckland flight was announced in July.

Hawaiian traditionally launches new international service with 767s and then upgauges to the Airbus .

A Hawaiian spokesman tells Aviation Week that the change in aircraft type will be made possible by the next wave of A330 deliveries. Two more are due to arrive in the first quarter of 2013, which will be the carrier’s 10th and 11th A330s . A total of five A330 deliveries are expected in 2013, the spokesman says.

Switching to the 294-seat A330 will give Hawaiian 30 more seats per flight than the 767-300ER , and 25% more cargo capacity.

Demand for the service has been mainly northbound from New Zealand, the spokesman adds, noting that there also has been significant interest in connecting flights to Hawaiian’s mainland U.S. destinations.
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Air New Zealand once more is increasing capacity on its transpacific routes, adding flights to all three of its North American gateways and signaling that further increases soon will be unveiled.

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