TORONTO — Air Canada and WestJet both reported record traffic in August filling close to 90% of their seats.

Air Canada reported a record system load factor of 89.8%, versus 89.5% in August 2013, an all-time record for any month in the carrier’s history, representing an increase of 0.3 percentage points on a system-wide capacity increase of 10.4%. On this additional capacity, system wide traffic for August increased 10.8%.

Air Canada reports traffic results on a system-wide basis, including Air Canada rouge, which began operations on July 1, 2013, and regional airlines from which Air Canada purchases capacity.

“We served more than four million customers, more than in any month in Air Canada’s 77-year history,” said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Air Canada generated greater traffic for the month of August in all markets led by significant increases in traffic in Atlantic and U.S. transborder markets. This is the fifth consecutive month Air Canada has set new records for system-wide passenger load factor.”

WestJet recorded an all-time record load factor of 89.3%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points year over year. Revenue passenger miles (RPMs), or traffic, increased 7.4% year over year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASMs), grew 5.7% over the same period. The airline flew a record 1.9 million guests in August, a year-over-year increase of 7.0% or approximately 126,000 additional guests, and achieved an on-time performance rate of 77.6% in the month, an improvement of 4.4 percentage points year over year.