Airline Trade Group Forecasts Record U.S. Carrier Passenger Numbers This Summer
May 18 2016 - 8:20AM
Dow Jones News
An estimated 231.1 million passengers are expected to fly on
U.S. airlines between June 1 and Aug. 31, a 4% increase from the
previous high set last summer, according to Airlines for America,
the leading trade group.
With U.S. fliers increasingly caught in long lines before
undergoing security screening at airports—and sometimes missing
their flights—the trade group called on the Transportation Security
Administration to quickly hire and train new staffers to alleviate
the screening delays that started appearing earlier this year.
"It has been a challenging spring with fliers waiting in lines
that take more than 60 to 90 minutes to get through security," said
Sharon Pinkerton, A4A's senior vice president of legislative and
regulatory affairs. She encouraged travelers to enroll in the TSA's
paid PreCheck program, which offers special lanes and quicker
screening, "as we move into another record-setting travel
season."
Airlines for America recently started a website called
ihatethewait.com, where travelers can tweet their airport locations
and complaints to @AskTSA, and share photos of their waits in
airport security lines, raising awareness of the issue and serving
as crowd-sourced information.
Over the three-month period ending Aug. 31, the trade group
expects an average of 95,500 more airline passengers a day than
last summer. That includes fliers traveling overseas on U.S.
carriers. To accommodate the record volumes, airlines will be
offering 2.78 million seats a day, an increase of more than 100,000
seats a day from last summer, the group said.
"We saw airfares fall throughout 2015 and that trend continued
in the first three months of 2016," said John Heimlich, the trade
group's chief economist. "Air travel is becoming increasingly
affordable and accessible."
First-quarter results for the 10 publicly traded U.S. airlines
resulted in pretax earnings of $4.8 billion, resulting in a 13.2%
pretax profit margin for the group. A year earlier, the pretax
margin was 11.2%. Revenue was flat in the first quarter, as a 6.7%
decline in fares offset traffic growth of 6.2%. Expenses slipped
1.5% as a 28.9% decline in fuel costs offset a 12.6% gain in labor
expenses.
The data include Delta Air Lines Inc., which dropped out of the
trade group last year over a disagreement about the lobbying
direction taken by A4A. That leaves as members nine major airlines,
including three cargo carriers.
Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 18, 2016 08:05 ET (12:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024