Allegiant Air's August Traffic Surges

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Allegiant Air, a unit of Allegiant Travel Co., said Thursday that total system traffic and capacity surged in August, compared to the same month a year ago, while load factor fell.

Total system includes scheduled service, fixed fee contract and non-revenue flying.

The carrier said that on a total system basis it flew 410.1 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 36.1 percent increase from 301.2 million a year earlier.

A revenue passenger mile is an industry metric measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Available seat miles, or capacity, rose 41.2 percent to 469.8 million from 332.7 million a year earlier.

Load factor, or occupancy, fell 3.2 percentage points to 87.3 percent from 90.5 percent a year earlier.

Year to date figures were not provided.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant focuses on flying travelers in small cities to leisure destinations such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Orlando, Fla. and Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.