While traffic increased in February for U.S. Airways Group, slower revenue growth put pressure on shares.
A slower pace of revenue growth per available seat mile could indicate the airline is having trouble raising prices to offset the rising cost of fuel.
U.S. Airways (LCC) stock was hovering near $7.02, down 61 cents, or 7.99%. Southwest Airlines (LUV) stock was off nearly 3% in early afternoon trading. Smaller carrier Hawaiian Holdings (HA) was off 5.6%. But shares of Spirit Airlines (SAVE) were up 2.65%.
In a press release, U.S. Airways said mainline revenue passenger miles for February were 4.3 billion, up 7.9% versus February 2011, but that growth was lower than previous months’ double-digit increases. Available seat miles, a measure of capacity, rose 5.8% to 5.5 billion.
As we pointed out in a previous post, the latest filings from David Tepper of Appaloosa Management showed he emptied his position in U.S. Airways in recent months.
