U.S. Airline Traffic Down 25% in October

Total October passenger traffic for 18 U.S. airlines fell 25.1% to 41.90 billion revenue passenger miles from 55.91 billion a year earlier.

A revenue passenger mile equals one paying passenger carried one mile.

The October load factor, the percentage of available seats filled with paying passengers, fell 7.8 points to 62.5% from 70.3% a year ago.

The drop in traffic after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks helped prompt U.S. airlines to seek to put off a $2-billion federal tax payment for a second time.