Southwest Airlines, one of the two largest carriers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, bucked the U.S. airline industry trend of cutting capacity, instead choosing to add seats and flights this year.
But the Dallas-based airline, which announced a week ago that it will reverse course and chop nearly 200 flights in January, apparently was hurt by the expansion.
Southwest said Thursday that it flew 1.5 percent more seats on more planes in August than in August 2007, but filled fewer of them.
The load factor, the percentage of available seats filled with paying passengers, was 74.6 percent in August, down from 80 percent a year earlier.
