United Airlines Says January Traffic Declined

United Airlines said on Monday that traffic dropped 1.6 percent in January, a month when bad weather hobbled airlines by forcing thousands of flight cancellations.

The cancellations pushed down United’s flying capacity by 2.8 percent for the month. Because capacity fell more than traffic, United planes were actually a little fuller. It said occupancy rose one percentage point to 80.9 percent. The biggest gains were on domestic flights, where occupancy rose 1.5 percentage points to 83.8 percent.

United used to report monthly changes in passenger revenue, a key metric for airlines, but said that beginning with January it will only report that figure quarterly.

Shares of parent company United Continental Holdings Inc. fell 43 cents to close at $45.11 on Monday.