ExpressJet Traffic Up 12.4 Pct. in Aug.

HOUSTON - Regional carrier ExpressJet Holdings Inc. said Friday its August traffic grew 12.4 percent on a 9.9 percent capacity gain.

The airline, which operates as a feeder carrier for Continental Airlines, said traffic grew to 955.8 million revenue passenger miles in August from 850.3 million a year before. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity grew to 1.22 billion available seat miles from 1.11 billion seat miles in the same month of 2005.

Occupancy during the month improved 1.7 percentage points to 78.1 percent from 76.4 percent.

So far this year, ExpressJet said traffic is up 18.1 percent to 6.98 billion revenue passenger miles, on a capacity gain of 11.3 percent to 8.88 billion available seat miles. Occupancy rose 4.5 percentage points to 78.6 percent.

ExpressJet shares closed down a penny at $6.98 on the New York Stock Exchange.