Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways recorded year-over-year traffic growth in July, but the load factor declined. Southwest's acquisition of AirTran closed in May.
Total traffic rose 5.9% year-over-year, while capacity rose 6.6%, resulting in a 0.5 point decline in load factor, to 85.1%. In June, the combined carriers recorded a 1.1 point load factor increase to 83.9% as traffic growth outpaced capacity.
Southwest also estimated that passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) rose 1% compared to combined results for July 2010.