American traffic off in November while Southwest rises

American Airlines said its passenger traffic in November dropped slightly, down 0.5 percent as the Fort Worth-based carrier increased its capacity by 0.9 percent.

Its load factor declined 1.1 percentage points to 77.7 percent when compared to November 2013.

American also advised Wall Street that it expects unit revenues for the fourth quarter to be in the range of down one percent to up one percent. Shares of American (ticker: AAL) were down 19 cents to $50.82 on Monday.

Cowen and Company analyst Helane Becker told investors she believed unit revenue growth will continue to slow because of declining jet fuel prices.

“We believe the weakness in [unit revenues] is likely related to the company’s international network given the domestic market has been quite robust,” Becker wrote in a research note.

Separately, Southwest Airlines, which is the nation’s largest domestic carrier, said its passenger traffic jumped 6 percent in November as the Dallas-based carrier increased its capacity by 4 percent.

The company added several new long-haul flights at Dallas Love Field in October and early November that boosted Southwest’s capacity.

Its load factor also increased 1.5 percent when compared to November 2013.

Southwest said it expects unit revenues to have increased in the four to five percent range for the month while unit revenues will grow inn the one to percent range for the whole fourth quarter.

Shares of Southwest (ticker: LUV) rose $1.01 to close at $42.13 on Monday.

This story was originally published December 8, 2014 at 5:35 PM with the headline "American traffic off in November while Southwest rises."