Allegiant Air traffic grows in August

Allegiant Air LLC said Friday its traffic grew in August as the regional carrier expanded capacity and improved occupancy.

For scheduled service, the airline recorded 263 million revenue passenger miles in the month compared with 237.9 million in August 2007. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Available seat miles, or capacity, rose 2.8 percent to 281.7 million from 274.1 million in the same month the year before.

Load factor, or occupancy, increased 6.6 percentage points to 93.4 percent from 86.8 percent.

For its total system, the airline said it recorded 301.2 million revenue passenger miles in August, compared with 257.6 million in August 2007. Available seat miles were 332.7 million, up from 302.9 million a year earlier. Load factor improved to 90.5 percent from 85.1 percent.

Total system includes scheduled service, fixed fee contract and non-revenue flying.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant focuses on flying travelers in small cities to leisure destinations such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.

Shares of Allegiant Air parent Allegiant Travel Co. rose 49 cents to $32.92 in morning trading.