Continental Air July Traffic Up 9.4% >CAL Monday August 2, 7:13 PM EDT HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) reported a 9.4% increase in July mainline traffic on a 25% hike in international traffic, which offset a slight decline in domestic revenue passenger miles. In a press release Monday, the nation's fifth largest carrier said it flew 6.59 billion revenue passenger miles compared with 6.02 billion miles last year. A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile. International traffic reached 2.88 billion revenue passenger miles, up from last year's 2.3 billion miles. Domestic traffic slipped to 3.71 billion revenue passenger miles from 3.73 billion revenue passenger miles, a year ago. Mainline load factor, or percentage of seats filled, was 86.1% for the month compared with 84.5%, a year earlier. For the year-to-date, Continental Airlines reported mainline traffic of 38.13 billion revenue passenger miles compared with 33.97 billion miles, a year ago. Domestic traffic declined 1.4%, while international traffic rose 20.9%. Load factor reached 77.1% from last year's 74.9%. Company Web site http://www.continental.com. -Maria P. Vallejo Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400; AskNewswires@ dowjones.com. Roger EWROPS