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DALLAS --

Southwest Airlines Co. said Friday that traffic rose 3 percent on its flights in December, as it joined other discount carriers in reporting a pickup in travel.

Southwest said revenue per seat rose about 7 percent compared with December 2008. That's a closely watched measurement of financial performance in the airline industry.

The increase in traffic put Southwest in company with fellow discount airlines JetBlue and AirTran, which also reported gains in December travel. It added to evidence that the discounters have fared better in the economic slowdown, as their lower fares attracted budget-conscious travelers.

In contrast, the two largest U.S. carriers, Delta and American, reported traffic fell in December.

Southwest said paying passengers flew 5.97 billion miles last month, up from 5.79 billion miles in December 2008.

Southwest, based in Dallas, reduced traffic 5.8 percent from a year earlier, to 7.83 billion available seat miles. That's a measure of one seat flown one mile. Southwest reduced capacity by cutting flights.

As a result of the capacity cuts, average occupancy or load factor jumped 6.5 percentage points to 76.2 percent.