PRINCETON, New Jersey (Bloomberg) - Total March passenger traffic for 15 US airlines rose 2.2 percent to 68.30 billion revenue passenger miles from 66.85 billion a year earlier.

A revenue passenger mile equals one paying passenger carried one mile.

The March load factor, the average percentage of available seats that are filled with paying passengers on each flight, rose 0.6 point to 82.5 percent from 82 percent a year ago.

March available seat miles, a measure of total capacity, rose 1.5 percent to 82.75 billion miles from 81.57 billion a year ago.

Domestic and International totals do not include Alaska Air Group Inc. Company does not provide breakdown of results.

Percentages and point changes may not compute due to rounding.