JetBlue Airways Corporation reported a slight rise of traffic in July, in the first month-over-month improvement for the budget carrier in almost a year.

Competitor Southwest Airlines also reported a rise in traffic, a sign that passengers are moving from full service carriers to low-cost alternatives during the recession, this summer.

JetBlue said passengers flew a total of 2.54 billion miles compared with 2.53 billion in the same period last year, in what has been their first improvement of traffic since August 2008.

JetBlue says more seats were available last month and that planes were not full.  Capacity in July had gone up by 0.9 percent as occupancy fell 0.5 to 86.1 percent.

The airline says traffic is down total of 4.6 percent this year, but this has been evened out as the carrier cut capacity by 2.9 in the first seven months of 2009.  Occupancy rates fell 1.4% to 79.1% in the same period.

Thanks to Forbes for the above quotes.  For more information, please visit their website.