Republic Airways Holdings Inc. said its traffic grew in September, with revenue passenger miles up 10.7 percent from a year ago to 927.7 million.
A revenue passenger mile equals one mile flown by one paying passenger.
The company bought privately held Midwest Airlines for $31 million in cash and debt in July and recently acquired Frontier Airlines out of bankruptcy.
Republic is transforming itself from a regional jet hauler of travelers for other airlines into a carrier that competes for its own passengers.
Republic also said Monday its available seat miles, or capacity, grew 10.2 percent to 1.26 million in September from 1.14 million, a year ago.
Load factor, a measure of industry occupancy, inched higher to 73.6 percent, from 73.2 percent in September 2008, Republic said.
It carried 1.77 million passengers in the month, up 7.8 percent from 1.64 million, a year earlier.
Republic Airways Holdings, based in Indianapolis, Indiana is an airline holding company that owns Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Midwest Airlines, Mokulele Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America, collectively “the airlines.” The airlines offer scheduled passenger service on approximately 1,800 flights daily to 126 cities in 47 states, Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica under branded operations at Frontier, Midwest and Mokulele, and through fixed-fee airline services agreements with five major U.S. airlines. The fixed-fee flights are operated under an airline partner brand, such as AmericanConnection, Continental Express, Delta Connection, United Express, and US Airways Express. The airlines currently employ over 11,000 aviation professionals and operate 294 aircraft.
