US airlines posted a record load factor for March 84.3%, according to the data released Thursday by the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The load factor, a measurement of revenue passenger-miles divided by available seat-miles, topped 85% for domestic flights and 82.8% for international ones, both also records for the month of March, BTS said.
US airlines carried 65.1 million scheduled passengers in their systems, up 1% from March 2012. Domestic passenger numbers rose 0.6% to 56.6 million and international numbers rose 3.3% to 8.5 million.
Load factors have reached record levels as the airline industry continued to trim capacity. International capacity fell for the third straight month, BTS said.
Airlines in recent years have been reducing reducing the number of routes they fly and grounding planes in response to high jet fuel costs.
