Continental July load factor up, sees RASM lower Thursday August 1, 4:42 PM EDT HOUSTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Continental Airlines (CAL), the nation's fifth-largest air carrier, estimated on Thursday that its July revenue per available seat mile dropped 3 percent to 5 percent because of lower ticket prices. Revenue per available seat mile (RASM) gauges the amount of money Continental takes in when it moves one seat one mile. The airline said its RASM dropped 5.5 percent in June compared with a year earlier. Houston-based Continental said that its load factor, which measures the number of seats it fills on average, rose 1.2 percentage points from a year ago to 79.4 percent. Roger EWROPS