Hawaiian Airlines traffic rose and capacity fell, leaving fewer empty seats in November

Hawaiian Airlines traffic rose in November

HONOLULU — Hawaiian Airlines said Monday its traffic rose 2.4 percent in November while it cut capacity, leading to fuller planes.

Paying passengers flew 644.3 million miles last month, up from 629.2 million in November 2008.

The airline said its passenger-carrying capacity fell 4.1 percent, to 763.4 million available seat miles. A seat mile is one seat flown one mile.

Load factor, or average occupancy on flights, rose to 84.4 percent from 79.1 percent a year earlier, the company said.

For the first 11 months of the year, Hawaiian said traffic was up 3.6 percent and capacity increased 2.4 percent, leading to average occupancy of 83.9 percent, up from 82.9 percent in the same period last year.

The airline is a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings Inc. Shares rose 10 cents to $7.16 in morning trading.