Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic rises 6.9 percent

Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic rose 6.9 percent in February as the rapidly expanding carrier offered more flights.

The state’s oldest airline said today it transported 751,091 passengers last month compared with 702,890 in the year-earlier period. The load factor, or percentage of seats filled, slipped 1.9 percentage points to 81 percent from 82.9 percent.

Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, jumped 24.6 percent to 1.2 million from 982,571. Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, increased 21.8 percent to 992,093 from 814,343.