American Airlines traffic fell 2.6 percent in Oct.

FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines says October traffic declined 2.6 percent, but the nation's second-largest carrier eliminated seats even faster so the average flight was more full than a year ago.

American said Wednesday that paying passengers flew 10.24 billion miles last month, down from 10.51 billion in October 2008.

Declines were across the board, from 5.2 percent on Pacific routes to 0.6 percent in Latin America. U.S. traffic fell 3.2 percent.

The airline reduced capacity by operating fewer flights and using smaller planes on some routes. Capacity measured in available seat miles dropped 7.3 percent.

With the supply of seats falling faster than the drop-off in traffic, average occupancy or load factor improved to 83.1 percent from 79 percent a year earlier, or a gain of 4.1 percentage points.

Flights were more full in every market except the Pacific.

For the first 10 months of 2009, American said, traffic fell 8.2 percent and capacity declined 7.8 percent.

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