Air France-KLM Group, said passenger traffic rose 2.8 per cent last month, led by travel to the Americas.
Europe's biggest airline said the load factor, or proportion of seats filled, declined 1.6 percentage points to 83.7 per cent, as capacity rose 4.7 per cent, Paris-based Air France-KLM said in a statement today.
The number of passengers rose 1 per cent to 6.8 million. Traffic growth accelerated from July, when the increase was 1.8 per cent.
Unlike SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines or British Airways both of which are reducing capacity, Air France is adding seats, though by less than planned.
It will restrict capacity increases in the October-to-April winter schedule and next summer to 2 per cent. Delta intends a 13 per cent cut and British Airways will trim seats by as much as 5 per cent.
Traffic, or the number of passengers multiplied by the distance flown, rose 6.6 per cent on routes to North and South America, while the airline boosted capacity 6.5 per cent. The load factor was unchanged at 87.2 per cent.
Asian traffic increased 2.4 per cent, while the carrier added 7.1 per cent to capacity, causing the load factor to drop 4 points to 85.8 per cent.
African and Middle Eastern traffic increased 0.9 per cent, with capacity rising 1.9 per cent. That led to a decline in load factor of 0.8 percentage point to 86.7 per cent.
Traffic in Europe rose 0.9 per cent while the airline increased capacity by 1.8 per cent. The load factor fell 0.7 point to 75 per cent.
Cargo traffic in August fell 4 per cent while the carrier added 0.6 per cent capacity.