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Airline Passenger Traffic Down In June

Decline continued for 15th consecutive month

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 14, 2009

In a breakdown of the numbers, the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics says U.S. airlines carried 5.9 percent fewer domestic passengers than in June 2008, while international passengers decreased 8.5 percent.

For the first six months of the year, the number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines plunged 8.9 percent from the same period in 2008, dropping to 345.5 million, 33.7 million fewer than a year earlier, and the lowest January-to-June total since 2004.

Top Airlines

Southwest Airlines carried more total system and more domestic passengers for the first six months than any other U.S. airline, while American Airlines carried more international passengers than any other U.S. carrier.

Top Airports

More total system and domestic passengers boarded planes in the first six months at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International than at any other U.S. airport and Miami International was the busiest airport for international passengers.

Flights Operated

U.S. carriers operated 4.8 million domestic and international flights in the first six months of 2009. That's down 8.8 percent from the same period in 2008. Domestic flights decreased 9.0 percent from the previous year while international flights were down 7.2 percent.

A check of the ConsumerAffairs.com computer provides some clues as to why fewer people are flying.

• Chad of Beloit, Wisconsin tells us, "a recent promotion from Hilton's HHonors loyalty program offered Diamond VIP members free award tickets on United Airlines. Approximately eleven months ago, I received a co-branded Hilton/United Airlines promotional e-mail offer for a free ticket to Europe on United Airlines in exchange for 150,000 Hilton HHonors points. I accepted this offer and exchanged 300,000 of my HHonors points for two 'free'award ticket certificates. I recently exchanged these certificates with United and was completely shell-shocked to learn that I would be charged $591 to redeem these "free" award tickets. After some investigation, I found that in addition to the taxes and security fees that the terms and conditions of certificate indicated I would be responsible for (approx $75 per ticket), United also assessed a $180 per ticket fuel surcharge as well as a $60 per ticket ticketing fee."

• Rachel of Arlington, Virginia, tells ConsumerAffairs.com this horror story: "I had booked a roundtrip ticket from Reagan National to Ft. Lauderdale a week ago for $411 that left today at 10am. Upon being boarded on the plane late, we notified that there would be a delay, a few minutes. 1 hour later, we were deboarded. We waited for updates -- the plane needed to be repaired. Hour after hour passed, until we were told that we could wait until the plane was fixed, re-book to leave at 7am the next morning or get a refund.

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