Continental Traffic Up 13.7% in June

Surging passenger traffic, most notably on Latin American routes, filled planes and boosted revenue at Continental Airlines (CAL Quote) last month.

Continental said consolidated revenue passenger miles, a gauge of passenger traffic, jumped 13.7% to 8.22 billion in June from 7.23 billion a year earlier. Traffic grew the most -- 25.1% -- on Latin American routes and jumped 19.6% on routes across the Atlantic. Domestic routes saw a 9.0% increase, and Pacific flights a 7.4% rise.

Mainline traffic, which excludes smaller, regional flights, rose 13.2%.

With demand strong, Continental has been boosting capacity, which is measured by available seat miles, or ASMs. Consolidated capacity rose 10.6% in June to 9.73 billion ASMs from 8.80 billion in June 2005. Mainline ASMs increased by 10.7%. ...