American Airlines traffic rises 1.5%

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines said Tuesday that December traffic increased 1.5% from a year earlier, making planes a bit more crowded.

American Airlines also said that it will take a $592 million accounting charge against fourth-quarter results for the value of cash that is being held in Venezuela. American and other airlines have been unable to resolve a dispute with Venezuela's government about exchange rates used to calculate repatriation of revenue from tickets sold there. American recently stopped selling tickets in Venezuelan currency.

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American's international traffic grew faster than domestic travel, and the airline didn't see the same decline in U.S.-Europe business that United attributed to the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris.

The average flight in December was 81.6% full compared with 80.4% in December 2014, American said. The figures included American Eagle flights.

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