CHICAGO (AP) -- Traffic on United Airlines and its regional affiliates slipped 1.6 percent in October compared with a year ago, but planes were more crowded as the company reduced flights.

Parent UAL Corp. said Tuesday that paying passengers flew 9.68 billion miles last month, compared with 9.84 billion in October 2008.

Capacity was reduced 4.3 percent to 11.64 billion available seat miles.

With capacity falling faster than traffic, the average plane was 83.1 percent full last month, compared with 80.8 percent in October 2008.

Traffic increased 16.2 percent on regional operations such as United Express.

However, the mainline United brand suffered a 3.8 percent decline in traffic from a year ago, to 8.43 billion miles flown by paying customers. Mainline capacity was cut 6.8 percent.

Companywide, traffic was down 7.8 percent through the first 10 months of the year, compared with the same period in 2008.