American Airlines July Traffic Fell 3.5 Percent

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - August 5, 2008 The nation's largest airline says its traffic fell 3.5 percent in July. Domestic traffic fell 5.3 percent, with capacity shrinking 3 percent.

It says the lighter traffic and a 1.2 percent reduction in capacity since July 2007 resulted in a load factor or occupancy of 85.8 percent. That's down from 87.8 percent in the same month a year earlier.

Revenue passenger miles fell to 12.46 billion from 12.91 billion a year ago. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.