Norwegian Air Shuttle traffic up 18 pct in August

OSLO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle (NWC.OL) said it carried 18 percent more passengers in August than a year earlier, filling a higher proportion of available seats while adding new services.

Norwegian Air, a rival of Scandinavian airline SAS (SAS.ST) (SAS.CO) (SASNOK.OL), said on Tuesday it carried 1,007,623 passengers last month. Total passenger traffic measured by the number of passengers and kilometres flown (RPK) rose 9 percent.

"The increase in passenger traffic, production and passengers is related to the group's expansion in established markets and to the introduction of new routes from September 2008 to August 2009, as well as adjustments in production capacity," Norwegian said in a statement.

The yield -- the average revenue per passenger carried and kilometre flown -- was estimated at 0.58 Norwegian crowns in August, down from 0.59 crowns in both July 2009 and in August of last year.

The load factor, which measures seats sold as a percentage of capacity, rose in August by two percentage points from a year ago to 81 percent, the airline said.

It said the average flying distance fell by 7 percent year on year.

(Reporting by Richard Solem; editing by John Stonestreet)