Despite the fact that September is traditionally one of the slowest travel months - if not the slowest - in South Florida, MIA traffic continued to grow at a very healthy rate. Compared to September 2006, international traffic was up 14.81% and domestic traffic was up 10.43%. YTD overall traffic is up a healthy 3.02% (1.85% domestic/4.44% international).

American Airlines, of course, remains MIA's largest carrier. AA's traffic in September was up 13.92% while American Eagle was up 9.17%. Delta Airlines', MIA's second largest carrier, saw traffic rise a healthy 5.34% (excluding regional affiliates).

For the most parts, domestic airlines showed impressive traffic growth compared to September 2006. US Airways is up 12.90%, AirTran was up a very impressive 45.36%, and now carried more traffic in September at MIA than Northwest Airlines did. Only Alaska Airlines saw a drop among domestic carriers, down 2.1% (although, YTD, they are up 10.22%).

Avianca up 24.66%, Aeropostal soared 80.79%, LACSA up 59.5%, and TACA soared 36.74%. All four LAN airlines saw extremely healthy growth, especially with LAN Ecuador soaring 51.19% and LAN Peru up 20.01%. Only two Latin airlines saw traffic fall, with Santa Barbara down 6.97% and AeroMexico down 4.83%.

Among European/Middle Eastern airlines, LTU soared 70.75%, El Al up 33.63%, Virgin up 29.57%, Swiss up 21.48%, and Martinair Holland up 19.17%. Alitalia was the poorest performer, however, seeing September traffic fall 4.21% (perhaps a result of reduced consumer confidence with the recent Alitalia fiasco, as Alitalia's YTD traffic at MIA was up a healthy 4.51%), Air France down 3.03% (including their Caribbean flights), and Lufthansa was down 2.67%.

Highest average load factors was, as always, El Al.

The percentages are not adjusted for capacity changes. For example, LTU's 70% jump is partly thanks to an increase in service from 3x weekly to 5x weekly.