Tacoma — The percentage of seats filled on Alaska Airlines flights fell just a smidge in May as its increased capacity exceeded its 4.8 percent increase in passenger traffic.
The airline holding company, based in SeaTac, said 85.7 percent of its seats were filled with paying passengers in May this year compared with 86 percent a year earlier.
Revenue passenger miles grew by 4.8 percent while available seat miles jumped by 5.1 percent.
Alaska is increasing its capacity by acquiring larger planes and by refitting its existing fleet with new seats.rkably high refinery capacity utilization, plus an addition to stocks that normally decline this time of year,” said Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey.The highest price in the lower 48 states among the markets surveyed was in San Francisco, at $4.14 a gallon, Lundberg said. The lowest was in Baton Rouge, La., where customers paid an average $3.33 a gallon. Regular gasoline averaged $3.87 a gallon on Long Island, N.Y., and $4.10 in Los Angeles.”If we assume a steady-as-she-goes for major crude oils, I think we may see some declines at the pump, but they will not be impressive,” Lundberg said. “It will be small down moves unless crude oil prices drop quite a bit.”Crude inventories fell 3.43 million barrels, or 0.9 percent, to 389.5 million, EIA data show.
