AirTran Airways March Traffic up 5.5%

AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AAI), today reported traffic for the month of March. The airline reported that revenue passenger miles (RPMs) were up 5.5 percent from the same time in 2010, while the available seat miles (ASMs) grew by 6.8 percent. AirTran Airways was recently named the top ranked airline by the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) for overall performance in 2010.

For March, traffic grew by 5.5 percent to more than 1.8 billion RPMs. The airline's load factor in March was 82.8 percent, a 1 percentage point decrease from the same period last year. The load factor for the first quarter was a record at 78.5 percent. The number of passengers enplaned grew by 2.3 percent to more than 2.2 million, which is a record for March.