Southwest Airlines traffic inches higher in Oct.

DALLAS - Southwest Airlines Co. said Thursday traffic in October rose a modest 1.9 percent even as the discount carrier aggressively cut flights, so there were fewer empty seats than a year ago.

Southwest said Thursday that paying passengers flew 6.33 billion miles last month, compared with 6.21 billion miles in October 2008.

Meanwhile, the airline reduced capacity 9.4 percent. Some airlines cut capacity by switching flights to smaller planes, but since Southwest uses only Boeing 737 aircraft, virtually all the reductions came by operating fewer flights.

Southwest, based in Dallas, has been cutting many unprofitable flights in response to a slump in travel, especially among high-paying corporate customers. It also has shifted planes to provide new service in New York, Boston, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

With fewer planes operating, the average Southwest plane was more crowded last month. Average occupancy or load factor was 75.9 percent, up from 72.1 percent in October 2008.

Southwest said it received 1 percent more in revenue per seat per mile, a closely watched measurement of airline performance. That's in sharp contrast to Continental Airlines, which said this week that including its regional affiliates, the same figure was down between 14 percent and 15 percent from a year ago.

Shares of Southwest rose 20 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $8.40 in morning trading.

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