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Airline Traffic Descends as Economy Takes a Dive

Fuel costs less but where are all the passengers?

February 17, 2009

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With the economy in a tailspin, many of the nation's airlines flew with empty seats in November. Still others cut back on the number of flights altogether, as customer traffic fell sharply.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines in November 2008 declined by 12.8 percent from November 2007, dropping by 7.9 million to 54.0 million in the largest decrease from the same month of the previous year since January 2002.

November was the ninth consecutive month with a decrease in passengers from 2007.

For the first 11 months of 2008, the number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines declined by 3.5 percent from the same period in 2007, dropping to 684.1 million, 24.7 million fewer than a year earlier.

U.S. airlines carried 4.2 percent fewer domestic passengers and 1.8 percent more international passengers in the first 11 months of 2008 than during the same period in 2007.

Southwest Airlines carried more total system and more domestic passengers for the first 11 months than any other U.S. airline. American Airlines carried more international passengers than any other U.S. carrier.

More total system and domestic passengers boarded planes in the first 11 months at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International than at any other U.S. airport and more international passengers boarded U.S. carriers at Miami International than at any other U.S. airport.

U.S. carriers operated 9.4 million domestic and international flights in the first 11 months of 2008, 4.5 percent fewer than were operated during the same period in 2007. Domestic flights decreased 4.8 percent from the previous year while international flights were down 1.2 percent.

In November, U.S. airlines operated 767,100 scheduled domestic and international flights, down 11.9 percent from the number of flights operated in November 2007.

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