American Airlines and its regional partner American Eagle saw a slight increase in passenger traffic in May and beat other airlines in a key revenue measure.
AMR Corp., which is operating while under bankruptcy protection, said Friday that revenue per mile that every seat flew increased 7.3 percent in May. That compared to gains of up to 6 percent at Delta, US Airways and Southwest and roughly flat at United.
The statistic is closely watched by airline analysts and investors as an indicator of the carriers' ability to raise fares and fill most of their seats.
The increases across the board show how much the airline industry is benefiting from recent fare increases and that travel demand appears to be holding up despite signs of slowing in the economy.
