July traffic rose 3.4 pct at Southwest Airlines

DALLAS

Southwest Airlines Co. said Friday that traffic rose 3.4 percent in July and a key revenue measurement jumped sharply, a reflection of the airline's higher fares this year compared with last summer.

Southwest said passenger revenue per available seat mile rose between 17 percent and 18 percent from July 2009. Southwest didn't provide information on average fares, but last month said that average fares in the April-to-June period rose 15 percent.

Southwest, based in Dallas, said paying passengers 7.49 billion miles last month, compared with 7.24 billion miles in July 2009.

The airline increased passenger-carrying capacity by 1.4 percent, to 8.82 billion available seat miles, a product of miles flown multiplied by seats on the plane.

Average occupancy rose 1.7 percentage points to 84.9 percent, a Southwest record for July.

Shares fell 2 cents to $12.04 in morning trading.