United records big falloff in trans-Atlantic traffic

United saw a very modest overall increase in passenger traffic in October, according to an operational performance report the Chicago-based carrier released Wednesday. But the really big news was the continued decline in United's trans-Atlantic traffic, typically a high-margin part of any global carrier's revenue stream. The October numbers showed United's consolidated traffic for October rose only 0.6% year over year. Domestic traffic grew 2.3% year over year, but across the Atlantic, traffic dropped a very significant 4.9% year over year. Undoubtedly, currency exchange rates have made it more expensive for Europeans to visit the US in recent months. And Americans may be more wary of traveling to Europe because of lingering concerns about terrorism. United's overall capacity in October grew 1.8% year over year, but was up 3.9 domestically, and 1.9% internationally. On the capacity front, United also looks to be shrinking its regional flight operations, with capacity in that segment of the carrier's operations dropping 6.9 percent year over year. Mainline capacity grew 2.9% year over year. Regional operations have been a sticking point for United as it tries to improve its on-time arrival performance. In the October on-time arrival competition, United fell to fourth behind the three other major domestic carriers, Delta, Southwest and American. United's mainline on-time performance saw significant improvement in October, with 69.5% of flights arriving on time, up from 65.5% a year ago.<br/>