System traffic up 4.9 percent from September 2009

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported in a release of preliminary data that U.S. airlines carried 57.3 million scheduled domestic and international passengers in September 2010. This is a 4.9 percent increase from September 2009 and was the largest monthly year-over-year increase since September 2007. The September 2010 passenger total was also 5.7 percent above that of two years ago in September 2008 but still remained 3.2 percent below the pre-recession level of September 2007.

BTS, a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, also reported that U.S. airlines carried 4.3 percent more domestic passengers in September 2010 than in September 2009.  The number of international passengers on U.S. carriers in September 2010 increased 9.4 percent over September 2009. The September 2010 load factors of 81.0 percent systemwide, 79.9 percent domestic and 83.5 percent international were the highest recorded for any September.

For the first nine months of 2010, the number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines increased 1.5 percent from the same period in 2009 to 541.5 million. The number of passengers declined 6.8 percent from the first nine months of 2008 to the first nine months of 2010.

U.S. airlines carried 1.0 percent more domestic passengers and 5.3 percent more international passengers in the first nine months of 2010 than during the same period in 2009.
(Source:www.transportweekly.com)