Airline passenger numbers strong in November

Both WestJet and Porter Airlines reported strong passenger traffic in November compared with the same month a year earlier.

WestJets load factorthe proportion of seats filledheld steady at 77.6 per cent in November.

Porter Airlines reported a record November, with a load factor of 65.9 per cent, 11.9 points higher than the previous year.

WestJets was its second-best November ever and was little changed from 77.7 per cent a year ago.

WestJets revenue passenger miles, or traffic, increased 4.4 per cent while capacity, measured in available seat miles, grew 4.5 per cent.

The airline says it flew an additional 51,000 guests this November.

"Achieving our second-highest November load factor, as we continued to grow capacity, is an accomplishment of which we're very proud," said WestJet President and CEO Gregg Saretsky.

"We are noticing a slight shift in booking patterns this holiday season with more travel spilling into January as school breaks are starting later in December," Saretsky said.

The airline now projects fourth quarter 2011 revenue per available seat mile to grow between four and five per cent.

Porters passenger numbers also set a new high for the month at 213,969.

Its available seat miles increased 20.7 per cent to 118.6 million and revenue passenger miles grew 47.3 per cent.