The airline said monthly traffic rose to 10.85 billion revenue passenger miles from 10.6 billion a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity dipped 1.4 percent to 13.83 billion available seat miles from 14.03 billion in September 2006. Occupancy, or load factor, increased to 78.4 percent of seats filled from 75.5 percent a year earlier.

So far this year, American Airlines' traffic has fallen 1.6 percent to 104.51 billion revenue passenger miles from 106.21 billion. Its capacity during the first nine months of the year dropped 3.2 percent to 127.58 billion available seat miles from 131.83 billion in the year-ago period.

Occupancy edged up to 81.9 percent from 80.6 percent in the previous year.

Shares of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. jumped $1.49, or 6.4 percent, to $24.74 in afternoon trading. The stock has ranged from $20.28 to $41 over the past year.