Passenger Miles Increase 5.8% in March for AirCal

AirCal, the Newport Beach-based regional airline, reported 166 million passenger miles flown during March, a 5.8% increase over March of last year. A revenue passenger mile, the basic measure of an airline’s volume, is one paying passenger flying one mile. The carrier’s load factor--the percentage of seats filled by paying passengers--fell to 59% from 63% the prior year.

First quarter figures for the airline show 453.5 million revenue passenger miles, up from 399.6 million for the comparable period last year and a 13.5% gain. The load factor rose during the quarter to 55.3%, a small increase over last year’s 54.7%.