Continental Jan Traffic Up 13%; Capacity Up 12.2% Wednesday February 1, 7:39 PM EST HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL)'s (CAL) January traffic grew 13% on a capacity increase of 12.2% In a press release Tuesday, the sixth-largest airline said it flew 6.63 billion consolidated revenue passenger miles, up from 5.87 billion a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile. January's consolidated load factor, or percentage of seats filled, was 75.9%, up from 75.4% a year earlier. During the month, the mainline load factor rose to 76.4%, from 76.2% a year earlier. The domestic load factor increased to 78.3%, from 76.1% a year earlier, while the International load factor fell to 74.2%, from 76.4% a year earlier. The airline estimated that consolidated revenue per available seat-mile grew by 4.5% to 5.5%, while mainline revenue per available seat mile grew 3% to 4% from the year-earlier period. Continental Airline said January traffic at its regional operation, Continental Express, rose 18.6% and capacity grew 12.5%. The Continental Express January load factor rose to 72.7%, up 3.7 points from a year earlier. Regional revenue passenger miles were 733 million and available seat miles were 1.01 billion. -John Seward; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400 Roger & Amanda La France