Airlines for America (A4A) is predicting a record-setting 17.5 million passengers will travel by air from the United States over Labor Day week.
The reason for the approximately 600,000-person jump up from the same period last year comes, according to A4A Vice President and Chief Economist John Heimlich, from a mix of low fares and high customer satisfaction. The result could be an average of 2.51 million passengers carried each day of that week, though Friday, Aug. 30 is slated to be the busiest. The news comes in spite of the grounding of the 737 MAX, which has cut more than 300 daily flights across the United States.
In response though, A4A said that airlines are adding around 109,000 seats to their schedule per day as a means of accommodating the additional customers the grounding could have left out.
At the same time, A4A has issued a rebuke of efforts to raise or uncap the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) at airports, which airports draw fund Federal Aviation Administration-approved projects related to safety, security or capacity, noise reduction or to increase air carrier competition. A4A says this would result in an additional charge of up to $144 for a family of four for a roundtrip, one-stop domestic flight, and dismisses airport claims that such a raise would help them prioritize local needs and provide facility updates.
“With airports already flush with cash, raising the airport tax is simply not fair to the flying public,” Sharon Pinkerton, A4A senior vice president for legislative and regulatory policy, said. “Airports don’t need a tax hike and passengers don’t want one.”
Limitations on PFC funding has come under attack by airport representatives and their supports, who contrast its limitations against airlines’ rising fee structures. The A4A points to the $32 billion in airport revenues collected over 2018 as an argument against any raises.