March Airline Traffic Numbers

(MoneyWatch)  If you thought February results were bad, take a look at March. With a couple of notable exceptions toward the top of the list, most airlines saw large drops in load factor. But this is only half the story. As noted before, the airlines that reported revenue estimates reported severe drop offs. So, the heavy discounting helped fill planes more than they would have at previous fare levels. And that's scary considering how much capacity has already been shed. Click for definitions.

Airline	ASMs	RPMs	Load Factor
AirTran	(8.4%)	(7.2%)	+1.1 pts
Alaska*	(9.0%)	(8.1%)	+0.8 pts
Allegiant	17.3%	19.1%	+1.5 pts
American*	(5.6%)	(10.9%)	-4.8 pts
Continental	(6.4%)	(9.7%)	-2.9 pts
Delta^	(7.9%)	(12.6%)	-4.4 pts
Frontier*	(19.7%)	(24.0%)	-4.6 pts
JetBlue	(5.6%)	(8.5%)	-2.5 pts
Southwest	(1.5%)	(0.4%)	+0.8 pts
United	(9.9%)	(13.6%)	-3.3 pts
US Airways#	(5.9%)	(8.8%)	-2.5 pts

*Does not include regional operations

#Only includes wholly-owned regional subsidiaries

^Delta and Northwest results will be combined under Delta from this month forward