Australian discount airline Virgin Blue said on Tuesday its passenger numbers rose in February from a year earlier but its load factor fell.

Virgin Blue filled 75.8 percent of the space available on its planes in February, down 3.8 basis points from 79.6 percent a year ago, the airline said on Tuesday.

For the 11 months to February, the load factor fell by 6.5 points to 76.6 percent, compared with the previous year.

Loads represent the number of paying passengers multiplied by kilometres flown, taken as a percentage of seats available multiplied by kilometres flown.

Virgin Blue traffic rose 18 percent while capacity rose 24 percent in February, the airline said in a statement.

Transport group Patrick Corp held a 62.4 percent stake in Virgin Blue after its AUD$1.90 a share takeover bid closed on Friday. Richard Branson's Virgin Group held 25.57 percent.

On Monday, Qantas Airways said its domestic load factor fell 0.9 percentage points in February to 76.1 percent. Internationally, loads fell 1.7 points to 76 percent.

Qantas said its total passenger numbers increased by 7.1 percent over the previous year.

Qantas has 45 percent of its fuel needs hedged in 2006 at USD$45 a barrel. Virgin Blue has no hedging for 2006.