Midwest Air October traffic rises

MILWAUKEE --Midwest Air Group Inc., which operates passenger airlines Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect, on Friday said passenger traffic rose 17.3 percent in October.

The air carrier logged 335.3 million revenue passenger miles during the month, up from 285.9 million a year ago. A revenue passenger mile is equal to one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity rose 3.7 percent to 441.2 million total available seat miles from 425.6 million. Load factor, or occupancy, rose to 76.5 percent from 67.9 percent last year.

Year to date, Midwest Air said traffic rose 22.6 percent to 3.42 billion revenue passenger miles, capacity rose 14.4 percent to 4.49 billion total available seat miles, and load factor rose to 77 percent from 71.8 percent a year ago.