Southwest Airlines Co. reported a 7 percent boost in passenger traffic in the first month of the year.

The Dallas-based airline, the busiest at Port Columbus International Airport, said Thursday it flew 5.5 billion revenue passenger miles in January, up from 5.14 billion in the same month a year ago. Revenue passenger miles is the airline industry’s measure of traffic, calculating every paying passenger flown per mile.

Capacity sank 7 percent in January, helping drive up load factor – the percentage of seats filled – to 72.1 percent from 62.8 percent.

Last month’s gain in traffic follows a 1 percent boost in activity for all of 2009.

At Port Columbus, Southwest (NYSE:LUV) carries more than a quarter of all passengers.
by Business First of Columbus