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United Airlines was busy shattering records in July. Very busy. But the shattered records also raised some warning flags. As the carrier races to expand its route network both domestically and internationally, the carrier posted major records on at least 2 fronts in July. Friday, United said that it flew nearly 16m customers in July, the most ever in a single month. That July record comes on the heels of the carrier’s best-ever single day for traffic, which occurred June 29. The strong traffic numbers suggests the surge in travel at many airlines in recent months is continuing unabated. United also said July set a record for number of flight departures in a single month — a whopping 73,000. What’s more, the carrier’s mainline flights flew at better than 90% capacity. <br/>

Aimia is leaving the door open to reaching an agreement with the Air Canada-led group that sought to acquire the company’s Aeroplan rewards program, seeking a sweetened offer from the airline. Aimia said late Thursday it wants at least C$450m (US$347m) for Aeroplan after the Air Canada group boosted its bid to $325m from an initial proposal of C$250m. The lower offers don’t reflect “the value of the Aeroplan business to members and stakeholders,” according to Aimia. Air Canada said Thursday its enhanced $325m offer “would have ensured value and continuity for Aeroplan members as well as customers of Air Canada, TD, CIBC and Visa.” <br/>“We never stop negotiating. Should the consortium want to engage with us in a constructive dialogue, we would be happy to entertain that,” Aimia CE Jeremy Rabe said Friday. <br/>