US AIRLINES POST MIXED DECEMBER FIGURES BUT IT’S THE BLACK STUFF THAT WILL BE THE PROBLEM FOR 2011

As Airbus celebrates a great A380 order (see APAC section) US airlines show that, even though bad weather may take the shine off of the recovery for most, passenger demand remains stronger than expected. AirTran’s traffic climbed 2.7% in December, which rounded off a record year for the airline for both capacity and load figures. For AirTran capacity increased 1.1% in December while load figures rose to 78.9% from 77.7% during the same period in 2009. The increase in passenger demand for both economy and business travel has helped the airline make healthy gains in 2010. Passenger traffic for the full