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BA, KLM traffic falls
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January 4, 2002: 10:45 a.m. ET
Europe's big airlines see passenger volumes fall, but low-cost carriers soar
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LONDON (CNN) - Two of Europe's largest carriers -- British Airways and KLM - saw passenger traffic fall in December due to the September 11 attacks.
British Airways (BAY), Europe's biggest airline, and Dutch national carrier KLM, No. 4 in Europe, said passenger volume was down significantly in December - but more people were flying than in the previous month.
BA said on Friday passenger traffic fell 10 percent last month, an improvement on the 18-percent decline in November, reflecting a slight rebound in demand following the U.S. attacks.
The airline's numbers mirrored those announced by KLM earlier on Friday. The Dutch airline said December passenger traffic fell 10 percent from a year ago, but that was an improvement over previous months.
KLM has shed jobs and cut seating capacity by 9 percent to save costs after the attacks.
"Similar to October and November, the largest decline in both traffic and capacity was on the North Atlantic route area, where traffic dropped by 23 percent and capacity was reduced by 24 percent," KLM said.
The number of seats sold fell 0.3 percentage points to 73.7 percent. Overall load factor, a measure of how full a plane is, fell 1.8 percentage points to 75 percent.
BA shares roared 10.8 percent higher in late trading Friday in London, while shares in KLM were up 7.2 percent.
Meanwhile, low-cost airline Go saw an improvement in passenger numbers in December.
The UK based carrier said on Friday passenger traffic soared 57 percent, as no-frills airlines, like Easyjet (EZJ) and Ryanair (RYA) continued to win passengers by slashing fares.
Continental Airlines (CAL: up $0.10 to $30.14, Research, Estimates) on Wednesday posted a December load factor of 72.7 percent, while American Airlines (AMR: up $0.57 to $24.21, Research, Estimates) saw its load factor fall to 67.2 percent. 
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