Traffic increases across the board

In the USA, Southwest Airlines has stated that it expects capacity to increase 7% this year and by between 5% and 6% in 2016. This comes as third quarter 2015 revenue per available seat mile fell 1% year on year, which is impressive given the capacity increase. Full year unit costs are forecast to decline 2% excluding fuel. Fuel costs are forecast to decline by 24.5% to $2.22 a gallon in Q3. But Southwest is not positioned to benefit from the opening-up of Cuba as new relaxed rules implemented this week allow more travel, corporate expansion, and make it easier