As in a 81.3 percent load factor in August, down from 87.4 percent last August. The vaguely good news is that the 6.1 percentage point drop in load factor in August is better than the 6.6 percentage point drop this July versus the year previous. Either way though, that sort of a drop will cause the airlines to reduce capacity.
While the sharpest year-over-year reductions are likely to happen next spring and summer, US Airways has just published cuts to its European operations from Charlotte for this winter. The airline’s second flight a day from Charlotte to London Heathrow begins on Saturday and was suppose to operate yearly year-round. US Airways though updated its schedule over this past weekend and the second flight now isn’t go to happen from January 16th through February 12th. Also, its Charlotte to Frankfurt flight only operates six days a week (not on Mondays) from January 12th through February 2nd. This mark the second cut to the service.
