JetBlue April passenger traffic rises on capacity increase

JetBlue flew a total of 2.28 billion revenue passenger miles, up from 2.27 billion in the same month last year. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit that represents one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity rose 7.4 percent to 2.87 billion available seat miles from 2.67 billion in April 2007. An available seat mile measures the number of seats available and number of miles flown.

Load factor, an industry measure of occupancy, fell 5.2 percentage points to 79.5 percent.

So far this year, JetBlue's traffic is up 7.8 percent to 8.85 billion revenue passenger miles, while capacity is up 12.2 percent to 11.27 billion available seat miles.

Occupancy is down 3.2 percentage points to 78.5 percent.

JetBlue shares fell 14 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $4.65 in afternoon trading.