AirTran Airways traffic, capacity fall in June

ORLANDO, Fla. - Discount carrier AirTran Airways, a unit of AirTran Holdings Inc., reported Thursday that traffic, capacity and load factor fell in June, compared with the same month a year earlier.

The carrier said it flew 1.76 billion revenue passenger miles, down 6.5 percent from the 1.89 billion it flew in June 2008.

A revenue passenger mile is an industry metric measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity fell 5.3 percent to 2.11 billion available seat miles, compared with 2.23 billion in June 2008.

Load factor, or occupancy, fell 1.1 percentage points to 83.6 percent, compared with 84.7 percent in June 2008.

Year-to-date, revenue passenger miles fell to 8.90 billion from 9.48 billion a year earlier, while available seat miles fell to 11.33 billion from 12.23 billion a year earlier and load factor rose to 78.6 percent from 77.5 percent a year earlier.

AirTran shares fell 32 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $6.17 in Thursday trading.

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