By KERA News
Dallas, TX – Southwest Airlines today reports its traffic fell slightly last month. But Dallas-based Southwest says a key measure of revenue jumped -- showing that carriers have had some success in raising fees and ticket prices.
Southwest, which carries more passengers domestically than any other U.S. airline, said it flew paying passengers 6.48 billion miles in April. That's a 0.6 percent decrease from 6.52 billion miles in April of 2009.
But passenger revenue per available seat mile, which measures how much money Southwest made to fly each paying passenger one mile, increased about 19 percent compared with a year earlier.
Besides raising fares, airlines can increase how much money they make per passenger by raising or expanding fees.
Percent of teen drivers in fatal night crashes up
A study finds nighttime driving is becoming more hazardous for teen drivers and the likely cause is talking and texting on cell phones.
The report was released Thursday by the Texas Transportation Institute.
The group says the proportion of nighttime fatal crashes involving drivers 16 to 19 years old nationwide increased 10 percent from 1999-2008. The percentage of nighttime fatal crashes involving drivers 20 and older rose nearly 8 percent during the same period.
Senior research specialist Bernie Fette says driving at night is dangerous and using a cell phone behind the wheel compromises your ability to drive. He says put those together "and you've created a perfect storm."
Data came from a system maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
'Scarecrow Bandit' leader gets 355 years
One of the leaders of the so-called "Scarecrow Bandits" has been sentenced to 355 years in prison for federal bank robbery and firearms convictions.
Tony R. Hewitt was sentenced Wednesday in Dallas by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle. Prosecutors say the sentencing of the 43-year-old is the last matter remaining from the notorious case.
The group's other leader, 29-year-old Corey Deyon Duffey, was sentenced to 354 years in prison in January.
The group of men committed 21 takeover-style bank robberies in Dallas in 2008, sometimes wearing plaid shirts and floppy hats. The outfits earned them the moniker "Scarecrow Bandits" from investigators.
The men routinely terrorized bank employees by putting handguns in their faces and threatening them.
Hewitt and four others were convicted in August 2009. Two other defendants pleaded guilty a week before the trial.