Markets

Continental Reveals Domestic Load Factor Strength, International Weakness

By Brett Snyder

Updated on: June 18, 2009 / 10:27 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

In a 8-K filed with the SEC this week, Continental revealed that its summer load factors were looking better than last year in the western hemisphere but worse in the long haul markets. A mixed bag of news, right? It's actually more bad than good.

The filing gave the following information:

Region	YOY Load Factor Difference
Domestic	+4 to 5 points
Latin America	+3 to 4 points
Transatlantic	No change
Pacific	-5 to 6 points

It would appear that things look better domestically and in Latin America than last year, but that's not necessarily true. Load factors overall are only expected to be up 0.5 to 1.5 points. That means that while domestic bookings are looking good now, they're probably expecting fewer last minute bookings to come in. Those are the big money business bookings that we know have been much harder to come by lately.

In the transoceanic markets, it's a different story. Pacific loads are very weak, though that's based on a 13.1 percent increase in capacity. Atlantic loads are flat, though it expects to see 10.9 percent less capacity. It's probably safe to assume that last minute bookings will be more scarce in these markets as well. In short, things are still looking tough this summer despite the current bump in loads on some routes.