SkyWest Inc., which operates SkyWest and Atlantic Southeast airlines, said Thursday its traffic increased 7.3 percent last month on a similar uptick in the number of available seats.
SkyWest and Atlantic Southeast, which operate as United Express and Delta Connection, reported May traffic of 1.58 billion revenue passenger miles. A revenue passenger mile is an industry metric representing one paying passenger flown one mile. SkyWest had traffic of 1.47 billion revenue passenger miles in May 2009.
Capacity, or the number of available seats, rose 7.8 percent to 1.98 billion available seat miles. Carriers can expand their capacity by adding flights or flying larger planes.
The airlines' combined occupancy rate, or load factor, fell 0.4 percentage points to 79.7 percent.
In the first five months of the year, traffic was up 11.3 percent. Capacity expanded by 9.2 percent and the carriers' occupancy rate rose 1.5 percentage points to 78.1 percent.
SkyWest Airlines also operates flights for AirTran Airways.
