American sees March traffic increase

In yet another sign that air travel is picking up after a 2008-2009 slump, American Airlines reported Monday that they saw a March traffic increase of 2.5 percent from March 2009.

With capacity slashed by 0.7 percent over the last 12 months, AA occupancy jumped from 79.2 to 81.7 percent. The Fort Worth based airline added that paying passengers flew 10.58 billion miles in March, up from 10.32 billion miles exactly one year ago.

This news comes days after both Continental Airlines and AirTran Airways reported traffic increases as well with 5.2 percent 9.6 percent increases respectively.

This is good news for U.S. airlines as they try to bounce back from 18-24 months of weak sales due to fuel costs increasing and less people traveling because of the recession.

Source: Market Watch