BTS releases May 2009 airline traffic data

The number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines in May 2009 declined by 9.3 percent from May 2008, dropping by 6.2 million to 59.7 million, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported.  May was the 14th consecutive month with a decrease in passengers from the prior year.

BTS, a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, in a release of preliminary data, reported that U.S. airlines carried 8.6 percent fewer domestic passengers than in May 2008. International passengers on U.S. carriers decreased 14.8 percent, the biggest percentage decrease from the same month of the previous year since December 2001.
For the first five months of 2009, the number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines declined by 9.5 percent from the same period in 2008, dropping to 281.9 million, 29.5 million fewer than a year earlier, and the lowest January-to-May total since 2004.

U.S. airlines carried 9.4 percent fewer domestic passengers and 9.8 percent fewer international passengers in the first five months of 2009 than during the same period in 2008. 

(Source: Transport Weekly)