Southwest Airlines' traffic up 5%

Southwest Airlines' passenger traffic grew 5.1 percent in September from the same month a year earlier, the airline says.

Dallas-based Southwest (NYSE: LUV) flew 6.1 billion revenue passengers miles in September, up from 5.8 billion revenue passenger miles a year earlier. Revenue passenger miles means total passengers carried times miles flows and is an airline industry measure of traffic.

The company’s load factor also increased slightly to 75 percent, up from 74.7 percent. Load factor means the percentage of available seats that were filled by passengers.

Southwest is the third-largest carrier at Denver International Airport by passengers carried. On Sept. 7 it anounced plans to buy another low-cost airline, AirTran.

Denver Business Journal