KLM Flying Dutchman - AMS-US Traffic Data December 2008

I have prepared a compilation of airline performance (load factor and cargo) based on DOT data for the month of December 2008 between AMS and US and between US and AMS by major pax carriers except for some small players such as Privatair AMS-IAH.

It is interesting to note that LF remained healthy despite the economic crisis, although some routes perform rather poorly on cargo. I also find interesting that the only major US legacy carrier without operations in AMS is AA. Of course, December is normally a busy month which has driven hup average loads.

Route, LF, pax and cargo -

MP
AMS MIA 68% 5056 pax 157t
MIA AMS 61% 4508 pax 230t

US
AMS PHL 66% 3075 pax 75t
PHL AMS 62% 3025 pax 119t

UA
AMS IAD 73% 5627 pax 507t
IAD AMS 69% 5480 pax 547t

AMS ORD 68% 3659 pax 324t
ORD AMS 71% 3908 pax 471t

DL
AMS ATL 73% 5399 pax 276t
ATL AMS 70% 4894 pax 369t

AMS JFK 71% 3675 pax 10t
JFK AMS 73% 3737 pax 3t

CO
AMS EWR 74% 5282 pax 605t
EWR AMS 80% 5427 pax 345t

AMS IAH 70% 5824 pax 484t
IAH AMS 69% 5503 pax 695t

NW
AMS BOS 68% 8684 pax 519t
BOS AMS 83% 10620 pax 463t

AMS DTW 82% 17708 pax 521t
DTW AMS 88% 19249 pax 608t

AMS EWR 83% 7597 pax 350t
EWR AMS 83% 7628 pax 16t

AMS IAD 73% 2489 pax 0t
IAD AMS 63% 2156 pax 0t

AMS JFK 65% 2840 pax 0t
JFK AMS 84% 3708 pax 0t

AMS MEM 72% 6423 pax 219t
MEM AMS 79% 7091 pax 267t

AMS MSP 83% 15491 pax 504t
MSP AMS 89% 16407 pax 625t

AMS PDX 69% 2865 pax 102t
PDX AMS 63% 2770 pax 158t

AMS SEA 85% 6516 pax 290t
SEA AMS 89% 6814 pax 329t

KLM
AMS ATL 77% 5207 pax 512t
ATL AMS 82% 5568 pax 485t

AMS DFW 65% 3419 pax 364t
DFW AMS 74% 3913 pax 367t

AMS DTW 73% 6878 pax 539t
DTW AMS 89% 8123 pax 254t

AMS IAD 67% 5178 pax 462t
IAD AMS 84% 6332 pax 396t

AMS IAH 79% 6668 pax 1514t
IAH AMS 85% 7118 pax 1919t

AMS JFK 85% 15976 pax 1597t
JFK AMS 87% 16476 pax 1322t

AMS LAX 90% 7833 pax 1342t
LAX AMS 84% 7319 pax 1360t

AMS ORD 70% 5508 pax 1662t
ORD AMS 80% 6241 pax 1340t

AMS SFO 88% 8027 pax 313t
SFO AMS 84% 7685 pax 500t

Rgs,

Cool info! ^

Thanks for putting in the time and effort, very interesting.

Are the LF figures for pax only, or pax and cargo combined?

Johan

Thanks for putting in the time and effort, very interesting.

Are the LF figures for pax only, or pax and cargo combined?

Johan

The Load Factors (LFs) are for pax only (for destinations with more than one flight the number of pax carried is combined and average taken. This is the case for example of JFK which has 2 dailly KL flight).

I think LF look very good, although as you know December is a peak month. Some routes show very poor cargo performance, and cargo business has been declining steadily over the months.

Rgs,

How about Openskies?

OpenSkies is not in the list above because it started flying AMS-JFK in 2009. The traffic figures are for December 2008, the latest available information released by DOT.

Rgs,

One should not forget that only LAX was in the 90% range, a figure pretty much standard on many KL/NW routes ex Schiphol in the past.
In addition to that, we are talking about significantly reduced average fares and a shorter period between the time of purchasing/booking and the departure.

This is a major concern at the moment. During the last years many airlines were able to get rid of a good chunk of their capacity several months before departure and especially in early 2006, 2007 and 2008 several airlines were able to sell their summer capacity very early in the year. This changed completely this year, although airlines are running sale after sale after sale with conditions significantly better than in previous years.

During the last weeks, aside from mediocre load factors and depressing yields, oil is getting expensive again and many airlines did not hedge as much as in previous years.

Anyway, Thanks a lot for the compilation of the numbers. ^

OpenSkies is not in the list above because it started flying AMS-JFK in 2009. The traffic figures are for December 2008, the latest available information released by DOT.

Rgs,

Openskies actually commenced service on the AMS-JFK route on October 15, 2008

Luchtvaartnieuws (http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/news/?id=28161)
BusinessWeek (2nd paragraph) (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2008/gb20081029_264963_page_2.htm)
Independent (final paragraph) (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ba-is-no-longer-british-airways-975434.html)

Slightly OT: I noticed there is now a US-version of the KL-site. You're no longer redirected to NWA. When was this introduced?

I have also calculated the market share of each carrier in the US-Amsterdam-US market for December 2008 and the results are as follows:


1. NW 41%
2. KLM 38%
3. CO 6%
4. DL 5%
5. UA 5%
6. MP 3%
7. US 2%

Rgs,

Does an 93% share constitute market dominance?

Johan