This Christmas season, budget carrier WestJet managed to get much more loaded in terms of travelers as compared to prior seasons, as has been confirmed by official figures.

Yesterday, the Calgary-based budget carrier confirmed that for the month of December, its load factor, which is a measure of the average number of passengers per airplane, was the highest ever recorded for any December since the carrier started operations.

Last month, WestJet carried around 42,000 more travelers as compared to December of 2008, which pushed its load factor to an unmatched 81.7%.

For December of 2008, the carrier's load factor had been recorded as 80.9%.

The introduction of various new vacation destinations has been pegged as the main reason for the improved numbers by CEO Sean Durfy, which helped fill the airplanes.

But inspite of the successful figures at the end of the year, CEO Durfy resounded his expectation that revenues for WestJet would decline by between 11% and 13% for the fall quarter, as compared to last year.