CALGARY — WestJet reported March 2015 traffic results with a load factor of 81.3%, down 2.7 percentage points from March 2014.

Revenue passenger miles (RPMs), or traffic, increased 1.5% year-over-year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASMs), grew 4.8% over the same period.

The airline flew a record 4.9 million guests in the first quarter, a year-over-year increase of 2.2% or approximately 108,000 additional guests, and achieved an on-time performance rate of 84.8% in the month of March, a year-over-year improvement of 8.7 percentage points.

“We continue to be pleased with our traffic growth as a record number of guests chose to fly with us, including on our fast growing regional airline WestJet Encore,” said WestJet President and CEO Gregg Saretsky. “As expected, we have seen industry supply increases in certain southern markets running ahead of demand resulting in depressed load factors. Despite this, the overall demand environment remains strong and first quarter RASM is expected to be in line with prior guidance.”