Air France-KLM passenger traffic rose 1.8 percent in September despite sporadic French air traffic control strikes and its planes flew with fewer empty seats, Europe's largest airline group by revenues said.

Cargo traffic rose 6.0% and the load factor for that business, measuring the proportion of available cargo space used for freight, rose 2.1% points to 67.5%.

"September was impacted by air traffic control strikes. Nevertheless, both the passenger and cargo operations maintained the trend observed since the beginning of the financial year, with a rise in load factors, especially in cargo, and a marked improvement in unit revenues," the airline group said. (Reuters)