Southwest Airlines carried more domestic passengers for the first five months of 2008 than any other U.S. airline, according to Department of Transportation statistics released Thursday.

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American Airlines carried more international passengers.

The department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Southwest carried 42.8 million passengers across its entire system.

BTS also said that U.S. airlines carried .6 percent fewer domestic passengers and 5.7 percent more international passengers during the first five months of the year than for the same period in 2007.

Among airports, more domestic passengers boarded planes in the first five months at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International than at any other U.S. airport and more international passengers boarded U.S. carriers at Miami International than at any other U.S. airport, BTS said.

The number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines during the first five months of of the year grew by .1 percent from the same period in 2007, reaching 310.4 million, about 300,000 more than a year earlier, BTS said.

Here are the top 10 U.S. carriers for January - May 2008, expressed in millions of passengers.

1 Southwest 42.808
2 American 38.919
3 Delta 28.875
4 United 26.318
5 US Airways 23.069 (Combines merger of US Airways and America West)
6 Northwest 21.012
7 Continental 19.971
8 AirTran 9.899
9 JetBlue 9.223
10 SkyWest 8.625

Here are the top 10 U.S. airports for January - May 2008, expressed in millions of passengers.

1 Atlanta 17.296
2 Chicago O'Hare 12.856
3 Dallas-Ft. Worth 10.921
4 Denver 9.745
5 Los Angeles 9.244
6 Las Vegas 8.575
7 Phoenix 8.400
8 Houston Bush 8.104
9 Orlando 7.342
10 Detroit 7.066

The complete report is available at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.