U.S. airlines adding more seats

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. airlines are adding capacity on increasingly full and, thus, profitable domestic routes, USA Today reported Tuesday.

An analysis by the newspaper found that airlines, including regional partners, will increase their domestic seat offerings by nearly 2 percent in November 2006 compared with November 2005.

Most of the capacity growth is coming from low-cost carriers: Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran added most of the net new seats for December. As of December, low-cost carriers will fly one out of every four seats.

Strong demand and 14 consecutive months of year-over-year revenue gains for airlines are making some airlines "bullish" about capacity, said John Heimlich, economist at the Air Transport Association.