Continental Airlines has sounded an optimistic and delighted chime, as the carrier increased the number of flights as more passengers hogged up.

The airline reported that an increase of 6 percent was seen in December flights of the company. There was a 2.1% rise in capacity compared to the same period last year.

The company said that passengers flew 7.54 billion revenue passenger miles last month, compared with 7.11 billion revenue passenger miles flown in December 2008. Revenue Passenger Miles is the industry metric measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

If we compare the full year results, the traffic of the airline dropped by 3.8% to 89.14 billion revenue passenger miles compared with 92.69 billion revenue passenger miles year earlier.

Continental Airlines shares also rose by 22 cents at $18.14.