Airlines for America (A4A) estimates a record travel period over the Labor Day week, with predictions of 17.5 million passengers flying U.S. airlines.
The traditionally busy travel period runs from Aug. 28, through Sept. 3. Last year, the period saw 16.9 million passengers take to the skies, but now, U.S. airlines are adding as many as 109,000 seats per day to meet expectations. U.S. airlines are expected to carry an average of 2.51 million passengers per day throughout that week, through Friday, August 30 should be the busiest, with around 2.98 million passengers.
“With fares at historic lows and customer satisfaction at historic highs, travelers continue to take to the skies in record numbers,” A4A Vice President and Chief Economist John Heimlich said.
This comes in spite of the issues introduced into U.S. air travel by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, which continues to face ongoing troubles.
Beyond this, A4A and a coalition of 80 other organizations have also recently reached out to applaud new enforcement guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding emotional support animals. The coalition effort is also pushing for new definitions of service animals to crack down on fraudulent use.
Further, A4A this month is rallying airlines to oppose an airport-led push to uncap the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC), a charge tacked onto all passengers’ costs to support airport infrastructure needs. The A4A concludes that airports have enough money as is — pointing to revenues of $32 billion — and deride the charge as an airport tax.