American Airlines: Sharp Decline in Latin America, Caribbean Traffic

American Airlines’ struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean are getting worse.

American Airlines Group saw a 7.1 percent reduction in traffic in the region last month, with 2.577 revenue passenger miles, down 7.1 percent from August 2015.

The company also saw a 5.3 percent decline in available seat miles in August with 3.125 billion, down from 3.3 billion in August 2015.

Load factor to the region saw a 1.5 percentage-point decline, to 82.5 from 84 percent.

Overall, the company saw a 3.1 percent reduction in international traffic last month.

It’s not clear what’s driving the carrier’s poor showing in Latin America and the Caribbean, although JetBlue’s continued expansion to the region and the continued issue of Zika could be factors.

For the year, traffic to the region has declined by 3 percent, to 20.89 billion revenue passenger miles.

— Caribbean Journal Staff