Brazilian domestic traffic measured by RPKs grew 5.7% year-over-year in May, against a 5% growth in ASKs, according the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANCA). Industry load factor grew 0.7 percentage point to 67.6%. 

The RPKs and ASKs for May reached levels not seen since 2000, ANCA said.

Azul achieved the highest individual load factor at 78%, closely followed by Avianca (AV) with 75.9%. AV’s RPKs grew 83%, followed by TRIP at 66%.  Market leader TAM faced a 7.9% decrease in RPKs, while second-ranked GOL posted a 0.85% growth, each keeping a 38.7% and a 33.8% market share, respectively. AV also led the way in market share growth, up 73.2%, to a 5.1% market share, followed by TRIP with a 53% increase to 4.7% market share. 

The accumulated January-May results show the industry grew 6 .5% in domestic RPKs in the period, while ASKs increased 9.3%. The two major carriers, TAM and GOL, faced 8.2% and 8.7% market share decrease, respectively, in the five first months of this year.

TAM and GOL, the only Brazilian carriers that operate international scheduled flights, in May posted 91.7% and 8.3% market share in this sector, respectively, the first achieving a 2.5% increase in RPKs  and the second decreasing 9.6%. TAM achieved 82.9% load factor, against GOL’s 56.3%.  Industry load factor was 79.8%, up 0.7 percentage point, the best May result for Brazilian carriers operating in the international market, since the year 2000.

Brazilian airlines as a whole faced a 2.7% decrease in international RPKs in May, against a 3.4% decrease in ASKs.