Dépêches

US Airways Group, Inc. Reports Record May Load Factor

Dépèche transmise le 3 juin 2009 par Business Wire

US Airways Group, Inc. Reports Record May Load Factor

TEMPE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE:LCC) today reported May and year-to-date 2009 traffic results. Mainline revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for the month were 5.1 billion, down 5.2 percent versus May 2008. Capacity was 6.2 billion available seat miles (ASMs), down 5.8 percent versus May 2008. Passenger load factor for the month of May was a record 82.8 percent, up 0.5 points versus May 2008.

US Airways President Scott Kirby said, "Our May consolidated (mainline and Express) passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) was down approximately 18 to 20 percent versus the same period last year while total revenue per available seat mile decreased between 14 and 16 percent on a year-over-year basis. We estimate that the H1N1 impact was approximately $20 million in lost revenue in May.”

For the month of May, US Airways’ preliminary on-time performance as reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was 79.2 percent with a completion factor of 99.1 percent.

The following summarizes US Airways Group’s traffic results for the month and year-to-date consisting of mainline operated flights as well as US Airways Express flights operated by wholly owned subsidiaries PSA Airlines and Piedmont Airlines.

US Airways is also providing a brief update on notable company accomplishments during the month of May:

• Completed a public offering of stock and convertible notes. The net proceeds from those offerings, including the exercise of overallotment options, after underwriting discounts and transactions fees, was $234 million.
• Inaugurated new service to Birmingham, U.K., and Oslo, Norway from the airline’s international gateway, Philadelphia International Airport.
• Announced the launch of daily nonstop flights between its hub at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, N.C. and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil beginning December 2, 2009, pending final approval from the Brazilian government. Rio de Janeiro is US Airways’ first service to South America and the airline’s fifth new international route this year.

US Airways was America’s number one on-time airline in 2008 among the “Big Six” hub-and-spoke airlines according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. US Airways, along with US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express, operates more than 3,200 flights per day and serves more than 200 communities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. The airline employs more than 33,000 aviation professionals worldwide and is a member of the Star Alliance network, which offers our customers more than 16,500 daily flights to 912 destinations in 159 countries worldwide. And for the eleventh consecutive year, the airline received a Diamond Award for maintenance training excellence from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its Charlotte, North Carolina hub line maintenance facility. For more company information, visit usairways.com. (LCCT)

Forward Looking Statements

Certain of the statements contained herein should be considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements may be identified by words such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "could," "should," and "continue" and similar terms used in connection with statements regarding the outlook, expected fuel costs, revenue and pricing environment, and expected financial performance of US Airways Group (the "Company"). Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the benefits of the business combination transaction involving America West Holdings Corporation and US Airways Group, including future financial and operating results, the Company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, and other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results and financial position to differ materially from these statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: the impact of future significant operating losses; the impact of economic conditions; changes in prevailing interest rates, a reduction in the availability of financing and increased costs of financing; the Company's high level of fixed obligations and the ability of the Company to obtain and maintain any necessary financing for operations and other purposes and operate pursuant to the terms of our financing facilities (particularly the financial covenants); the ability of the Company to maintain adequate liquidity; labor costs, relations with unionized employees generally and the impact and outcome of the labor negotiations, including the ability of the Company to complete the integration of the labor groups of the Company and America West Holdings; reliance on vendo