Continental Airlines May traffic rises 1.8 percent

HOUSTON (AP) _ Continental Airlines Inc. said Monday its consolidated traffic rose 1.8 percent last month as the carrier added international capacity.

May traffic increased to 8.28 billion revenue passenger miles from 8.14 billion a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is an industry measurement accounting for one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity rose 2.2 percent to 10.2 billion available seat miles from 9.98 billion.

The airline shed 3.9 percent of its domestic capacity, however, which contributed to a 4 percent drop in U.S. traffic.

Continental's overall load factor, a measure of occupancy, dipped 0.3 percentage points to 81.2 percent. Domestic occupancy was flat at 84.4 percent.

For the first five months of the year, traffic is up 2.6 percent to 38.4 billion revenue passenger miles. Capacity declined 3.6 percent during the period to 48.44 billion available seat miles, while occupancy slipped 0.7 percentage points to 79.3 percent.

Continental said its unit revenue, a key industry measurement, rose 6.5 to 7.5 percent in May. The carrier's fuel bill averaged $3.43 per gallon during the month.