Apparently American Airlines just recently said, on Wednesday, that December traffic fell by 1.6 percent. However, planes were fuller as the airline cut capacity by reducing the number of flights that it offers.

American Airlines said that paying passengers flew 10.17 billion miles last month. This is down from 10.32 billion miles seen December of 2008. Capacity fell by 3.3 percent to just 12.60 billion available seat miles, which is a measure of one seat flown one mile. Airlines cut capacity by eliminating a number of flights and using smaller planes with fewer seats.

The average occupancy or load factor on American flights was 80.6 percent, which was up from 79.2 percent seen a year earlier. American Airlines’ performance varied by geography, meaning that traffic fell by 2.1 percent in the United States but only by0.7 percent on international flights.

American Airlines, as well as many other airlines, have battled a slowdown among business travelers who fly frequently and often pay higher fares. Airlines were also not able to raise fares as often in 2009 as they did in 2008 due to the economic slowdown.

For the full year, traffic actually dropped by 7.1 percent to 122.38 billion miles flown by paying passengers. American Airlines cut capacity by 7.2 percent to just 151.71 billion available seat miles. The average occupancy rose to 80.7 percent from 80.6 percent in 2008.

Despite these figures, shares for American Airlines only fell by 7 cents to $8.29 in recent trading. Although any fall is bad, there have been many other airlines that have seen their shares take a nose dive after releasing less than pleasing figures.