European Travel Surge

European airlines reported higher passenger growth in August.  Air France-KLM, Britain's EasyJet, Scandinavia's SAS and Finland's Finnair posted solid increases in passenger miles flown.

Air France-KLM said its passenger traffic rose 8.1% in August alone, which increased its load factor 2.4% last month.

EasyJet passenger numbers rose 18% in August as compared to August 2004.  It's current load factor is 88.4%.

Ryanair said its August traffic rose 27% year-to-year to 3.26 million passengers, which for the first surpassed British Airways.

SAS reported a 6.4% increase in passenger traffic.

Finnair carried 723,000 passengers in August, which is a 7.5% increase from the prior year.

Regional, a fully-owned subsidiary of Air France, has just purchased six EMBRAER 190LR aircraft with an option to buy six additional. Delivery of the new aircraft to begin early in 2007.  The new jets will be deployed throughout Regional's network, linking 45 major cities in Europe with France.