March was a good month for Alaska Airlines, as they reported an increase in passenger traffic compared with the same time a year ago.

The Seattle-based airline's load factor, which is the percentage of available seats occupied by paying customers, jumped to 84.5 percent from 81.6 percent a year earlier.

Adding to the good news was that Alaska's on-time performance also increased to 87.2 percent from 70.2 percent in March 2009.

The airline's sister company Horizon Air also released good numbers as well, with their load factor at 73.3 percent last month compared to 69.5 percent last year and on-time flights were at an impressive 91.1, which was up from March 2009's 86 percent.

Source: BizJournal