Air traffic data report shows rise for July

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics, a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation, released air traffic data for the month of July 2015 on Friday.

The report shows that U.S. airlines’ systemwide, which includes international and domestic flights, had a scheduled service load factor that increase to 84.2 percent in July 2015. The service load factor is the measurement used for airline capacity. The percentage includes seasonal adjustments, which helps statisticians compare monthly load factors. This is the third month in a row that the percentage has increased.

In July, U.S. airlines showed a seasonally adjusted all-time monthly high for revenue passenger-miles (RPMs), passenger enplanements and available seat-miles (ASMs).

Systemwide RPMs amounted to 76.4 billion for July, which is an increase of 1.8 percent compared to June 2015. Systemwide passenger enplanements for July amounted to 66.7 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent compared to June 2015. Systemwide ASMs for July rose to 90.8 billion, an 0.8 percent rise compared to the previous month.

The July load factor is the second highest recorded, below the all-time seasonally adjusted high from January 2014, which was 84.5 percent.