Americans are flying more and on more fully loaded planes.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is out today with statistics that show U.S. airlines carried 61.5 million passengers in April, up 1.6 percent from April of the previous year.

There wasn’t any excess of shoulder and elbow room for most of those passengers.

The Department of Transportation reports that the domestic load factor — the percentage of occupied seats — was at 83.5 percent in April, a record high for the month.

Air traffic has also risen this year at Erie International Airport, but only slightly.

Through the end of June, 54,632 people had boarded planes at Erie’s Tom Ridge Field. That’s an increase of 0.73 percent compared to the first six months of 2011.