2015 could be the busiest summer for air travel in U.S. history, breaking a record set in 2007, before the big recession. Airlines for America, the lobbying arm of the major U.S. carriers, is predicting 222 million travelers between June 1 and August 31, beating 2007’s 217 million.
That works out to about 2.4 million passengers a day. The figures include 31 million passengers this summer on international flights (332,000 a day) which would also be a record.
Although most airlines are carefully controlling capacity to keep planes full, there will be about 4.6 percent more seats available during this peak period, which includes 13 of the 15 busiest travel days of the year.
Airlines for America (which used to be the Air Transport Association) attributes the bump not only to improvements in the economy generally, but to newer and better planes, improved customer service and to its claim that “air travel remains one of the best consumer bargains in America.”
MORE from Airlines for America. Photo: NATS
