Hawaiian Airlines reports traffic rose in Sept.

Hawaiian Airlines says traffic rose 8.1 percent in September

• On 1:57 pm EDT, Tuesday October 6, 2009

HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaiian Airlines said its systemwide traffic rose 8.1 percent in September compared with a year earlier.

The air carrier said Monday it flew 647.5 million revenue passenger miles last month, compared with 599.2 million, a year ago.

A revenue passenger mile equals one mile flown by one paying passenger.

Available seat miles, or capacity, increased 3.1 percent to 772.5 million from 749.2 million last year.

Occupancy -- known as load factor and calculated as revenue passenger miles as a share of capacity -- rose to 83.8 percent from 80 percent last year.

In the third quarter, revenue passenger miles rose 8.6 percent to 2.13 billion. Available seat miles edged up 2.7 percent to 2.51 billion and load factor rose to 84.9 percent from 80.3 percent.

Year-to-date, revenue passenger miles increased 3.5 percent, available seat miles rose 3.1 percent and load factor edged up to 83.7 percent from 83.4 percent.

Shares on Tuesday added 37 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $8.17 during afternoon trading. The stock has traded between $2.17 and $8.80 over the past year.