News Release
Continental Airlines Reports Operational Performance for October
HOUSTON, Nov. 1, 2001 -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL - news) today reported a 72.1 percent domestic and 56.5 percent international load factor for a systemwide load factor of 66.1 percent in October 2001. The systemwide load factor is 4.7 points above the load factor reported for September 2001 and 4.9 points below the 71.0 percent load factor reported for October 2000. The domestic load factor is 1.0 points higher than the results for October 2000, on 18.4 percent less capacity.
Continental's on-time arrival rate was a record 88.7 percent, 0.2 points above its previous record in September 1995. Its October 2001 completion factor of 99.6 percent tied the record set in November 2000.
In October 2001, Continental systemwide flew 4.0 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 6.1 billion available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a traffic decrease of 22.8 percent and a capacity decrease of 17.1 percent versus October 2000. Domestic traffic was 2.7 billion RPMs, down 17.2 percent from October 2000, and domestic capacity was 3.8 billion ASMs, down 18.4 percent from last year.
A decrease in systemwide load factor and yield resulted in a decrease in estimated passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) of between 23 and 25 percent for October 2001, as compared to October 2000. For the first two weeks of October, RASM decreased 24 to 26 percent versus the same period in October 2000. For the remainder of October, RASM decreased 22 to 24 percent versus the same period in October 2000.
Continental Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Airlines, reported a load factor of 62.7 percent for October, 1.7 points above last year. Continental Express flew 286.6 million RPMs and 457.2 million ASMs in October, resulting in a traffic increase of 4.6 percent and a capacity increase of 1.9 percent versus October 2000.
Weekly Statistics
The following table summarizes Continental's year-over-year load factor difference for the complete weeks of October 2001 on a same day-of-week basis.
PRELIMINARY YEAR-OVER-YEAR LOAD FACTOR DIFFERENCE
Oct. 1-7 Oct. 8-14 Oct. 15-21 Oct. 22-28
Domestic 0.9 Points 0.7 Points 1.4 Points 2.7 Points
International (17.2) Points (15.4) Points (13.0) Points (11.8) Points
Total Jet (6.0) Points (5.5) Points (4.2) Points (2.9) Points
Cont'l. Express 1.2 Points 1.8 Points 1.9 Points 4.1 Points
PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC RESULTS
OCTOBER 2001 2000 Change
REVENUE PASSENGER MILES (000)
Domestic 2,715,641 3,281,590 (17.2) Percent
International 1,315,076 1,938,601 (32.2) Percent
Transatlantic 642,116 995,823 (35.5) Percent
Latin America 429,192 567,644 (24.4) Percent
Pacific 243,768 375,134 (35.0) Percent
Total Jet 4,030,717 5,220,191 (22.8) Percent
Cont'l. Express 286,615 273,922 4.6 Percent
AVAILABLE SEAT MILES (000)
Domestic 3,764,721 4,615,504 (18.4) Percent
International 2,328,752 2,734,843 (14.8) Percent
Transatlantic 1,065,443 1,313,471 (18.9) Percent
Latin America 743,757 887,496 (16.2) Percent
Pacific 519,552 533,876 (2.7) Percent
Total Jet 6,093,473 7,350,347 (17.1) Percent
Cont'l. Express 457,236 448,772 1.9 Percent
PASSENGER LOAD FACTOR
Domestic 72.1 Percent 71.1 Percent 1.0 Points
International 56.5 Percent 70.9 Percent (14.4) Points
Transatlantic 60.3 Percent 75.8 Percent (15.5) Points
Latin America 57.7 Percent 64.0 Percent (6.3) Points
Pacific 46.9 Percent 70.3 Percent (23.4) Points
Total Jet 66.1 Percent 71.0 Percent (4.9) Points
Cont'l. Express 62.7 Percent 61.0 Percent 1.7 Points
CARGO REVENUE TON MILES (000)
Total 71,559 100,508 (28.8) Percent
YEAR-TO-DATE 2001 2000 Change
REVENUE PASSENGER MILES (000)
Domestic 32,438,154 32,995,514 (1.7) Percent
International 19,965,563 21,047,135 (5.1) Percent
Transatlantic 8,932,333 10,277,499 (13.1) Percent
Latin America 6,520,685 6,641,841 (1.8) Percent
Pacific 4,512,545 4,127,795 9.3 Percent
Total Jet 52,403,717 54,042,649 (3.0) Percent
Cont'l. Express 2,826,657 2,431,049 16.3 Percent
AVAILABLE SEAT MILES (000)
Domestic 44,738,976 44,519,043 0.5 Percent
International 27,619,207 27,521,109 0.4 Percent
Transatlantic 11,957,024 12,807,374 (6.6) Percent
Latin America 9,082,787 9,189,449 (1.2) Percent
Pacific 6,579,396 5,524,286 19.1 Percent
Total Jet 72,358,183 72,040,152 0.4 Percent
Cont'l. Express 4,540,219 3,899,803 16.4 Percent
PASSENGER LOAD FACTOR
Domestic 72.5 Percent 74.1 Percent (1.6) Points
International 72.3 Percent 76.5 Percent (4.2) Points
Transatlantic 74.7 Percent 80.2 Percent (5.5) Points
Latin America 71.8 Percent 72.3 Percent (0.5) Points
Pacific 68.6 Percent 74.7 Percent (6.1) Points
Total Jet 72.4 Percent 75.0 Percent (2.6) Points
Cont'l. Express 62.3 Percent 62.3 Percent --- Points
CARGO REVENUE TON MILES (000)
Total 786,384 911,176 (13.7) Percent
PRELIMINARY OPERATIONAL RESULTS
OCTOBER 2001 2000 Change
On-Time Performance* 88.7% 82.2% 6.5 Points
Completion Factor** 99.6% 99.5% 0.1 Points
PRELIMINARY RASM CHANGE AND FUEL PRICE
October 2001 estimated estimate
year-over-year RASM change (23-25) Percent
October 2001 estimated average
price per gallon of fuel,
excluding fuel taxes 71 Cents
* Department of Transportation Arrivals within 14 minutes
** System Mileage Completion Percentage