Delta August traffic up 1.1 percent as international gain weighed by domestic decline

Delta Air Lines traffic up 1.1 percent in August

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s largest airline, said Friday its traffic in August inched 1.1 percent higher as a continued international uptick was balanced by a domestic decline.

Systemwide traffic rose to 18.94 billion revenue passenger miles, a metric that measures a paying passenger flown one mile. Domestic traffic fell 0.9 percent despite a slight uptick in the number of available seats. International traffic increased 4.2 percent on a 2.7 percent increase in capacity.

The airline’s number of available seats, or capacity, rose 1.2 percent across its network.

Delta’s load factor, or occupancy rate, remained flat at 86.5 percent systemwide.

Delta flew about 15.2 million customers in August worldwide, about 0.3 percent higher than a year earlier.