US Airways June traffic falls slightly

US Airways Group Inc. said Wednesday its consolidated traffic fell slightly in June, as the airline raised capacity but filled fewer seats.

Higher airline fares linked to jet fuel prices have driven more passengers to forego faraway vacations in favor of sticking closer to home.

June traffic fell 0.6 percent to 5.86 billion revenue passenger miles from 5.9 billion in June 2007. A revenue passenger mile is a unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Consolidated capacity rose 0.6 percent to 6.95 billion available seat miles from 6.91 billion in the same month last year.

US Airways' load factor, a measure of occupancy, fell 1 percentage point to 84.4 percent.

So far this year, consolidated traffic is down 0.5 percent to 31.77 billion revenue passenger miles, while capacity is down 1.1 percent to 39.34 billion available seat miles. Occupancy is up 0.5 percentage points to 80.7 percent.

The figures include both mainline and regional operations.

US Airways shares rose 21 cents, or 8.8 percent, to $2.61.