Airline traffic rises by 1.4 percent for April

U.S. airlines carried 60.5 million passengers in April, up 1.4 percent from April 2010, the Department of Transportation reported this morning.

Air traffic, however, has yet to return to pre-recession levels, the department said. About 63 million passengers flew on U.S. airlines in April 2008.

Domestic travel increased slightly, to 52.8 million passengers in April from 52.5 million in April 2010; international travel increased to 7.7 million passengers from 7.2 million.

Although passenger numbers were up, planes were less crowded. Airlines filled about 80.7 percent of their available seats in April, down from 81.6 percent in April 2010. Although airlines slashed capacity during the recession, it began adding seats late last year to address surging demand. Overall, capacity was up 5.4 percent in April compared with April 2010.