NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - US Airways Holdings Inc. has announced relatively strong March passenger traffic as its new CEO named his new management team.

The nation's No. 6 airline said Thursday its load factor, which compares miles flown by paying passengers to the airline's total capacity, reached a record level for the company in March at 78 percent. That's up 4.6 percentage points from the March 2001 load factor.

But much of the success filling seats came from operating a smaller airline. The miles flown times the number of available seats fell 18.5 percent to 4.9 billion available seat miles, while the miles flown by paying passengers dropped only 13.4 percent to 3.8 million.

For the quarter, miles flown by paying passengers dropped 16 percent to 9.6 million miles, while available seat miles declined 18.9 percent to just under 14 billion. The first-quarter load factor came in at 68.5 percent, up from 66.2 percent in the year-earlier quarter.

The company said last week that it burned through about $3 million in cash a day in the first quarter and that it will post a significant loss for the period, in addition to a $148 million charge for the disposition of grounded aircraft and spare parts. But it also said it expects to report a positive cash flow in April, which means that it would have a positive operating profit without the charge for depreciation and amortization of equipment.

Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call expect the company to post a first-quarter loss of $6.14 a share, wider that the loss of $2.45 a share a year earlier. In the second quarter it is expected to lose $2.35 a share, wider than the 36-cent-a-share loss in the year-ago quarter.

The Arlington, Va.-based carrier on Thursday hired Neal Cohen as the new chief financial officer, promoted Michelle Bryan to general counsel from her position as senior vice president of human resources, and shifted Gregory Taylor to a newly created position of president of the US Airways Express division. It also named airline consultant Jerry Glass as the new senior vice president of employee relations, as well as announcing a number of other less senior executive moves.

David Siegel, who was hired away from the top spot at Avis Car Rental to be US Airways' new CEO on March 6, has already said in a message to airline employees that new labor contracts are needed to help stem losses at the company.

Shares of US Airways gained 34 cents to close at $6.10 Thursday following the traffic report.