Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. GOL reported air traffic figures for April. Consolidated traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), nudged up 1.9% to 2.76 billion. The metric rose 3% on the domestic front while the international figure declined 7.2%.
On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat kilometers/ASKs) inched up 0.8% to 3.46 billion, primarily on the back of 1.3% growth in domestic capacity. The carrier further witnessed 3.5% increase in passenger count in the month.
Load factor – percentage of seats filled up by passengers – rose to 79.9% from 79% in April 2017 owing to traffic expansion exceeding capacity growth. This improvement indicates the company’s focus on capacity discipline, which is likely to result in higher yields. The rise in load factor is also likely to boost the company’s profitability. This is because higher load factor implies that fixed costs are spread across more passengers…
