FORT WORTH, Texas (AFX) - American Airlines parent AMR Corp. on Tuesday said passenger traffic fell slightly in September as weakness in the domestic market outweighed increased traffic on international flights, and overall capacity declined.
The airline posted 10.6 billion revenue passenger miles, down from 10.74 billion in September 2005. Domestic traffic dipped 3.8 percent, offsetting a 3.1 percent gain in traffic on international flights.
A revenue passenger mile is equal to one paying passenger flown one mile.
Capacity contracted 0.5 percent to 14.03 billion available seat miles, versus 14.09 billion a year ago. Load factor, an industry measure of occupancy, fell to 75.5 percent, from 76.2 percent at the same time.
Year to date, American Airlines has logged 106.21 billion revenue passenger miles, up 1.1 percent from 105.04 billion over the same period in 2005. Domestic traffic has slipped 0.7 percent since the start of the year, while international traffic is up 4.8 percent.
Capacity has shrunk 1.1 percent to 131.83 billion available seat miles, from 133.34 billion a year earlier. Load factor, meanwhile, is up 1.8 points to 80.5 percent.
AMR shares shed a penny in aftermarket electronic trading, after rising 35 cents to close at $24.55 on the New York Stock Exchange.
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