American Eagle, which operates regional flights for American Airlines, said Tuesday that traffic rose 10.2 percent in August, outstripping an increase in passenger-carrying capacity.

Eagle said paying passengers flew 855.1 million miles last month, up from 776 million miles in August 2010.

The airline raised capacity by 7.5 percent, to 1.14 billion available seat miles, a measure of one seat flown one mile. Airlines add capacity by adding flights, using bigger planes or flying longer distances.

With traffic growing faster than capacity, the average flight was more full -- 75 percent last month, compared with 73.1 percent in August 2010.

American reported separately that traffic on the mainline airline fell 0.4 percent in August.

The airlines' parent company, AMR Corp, is in the process of spinning off American Eagle to shareholders as a separate company.

AMR shares fell 10 cents, or 2.9 percent, to close at US$3.32 Tuesday.