Airline Trade Group Forecasts Record U.S. Carrier Passenger Numbers This Summer

An estimated 231.1 million passengers are expected to fly on U.S. airlines between June 1 and Aug. 31, a 4% increase from the previous high set last summer, according to Airlines for America, the leading trade group.

With U.S. fliers increasingly caught in long lines before undergoing security screening at airports—and sometimes missing their flights—the trade group called on the Transportation Security Administration to quickly hire and train new staffers to alleviate the screening delays that started appearing earlier this year.

"It has been a challenging spring with fliers waiting in lines that take more than 60 to 90 minutes to get through security," said Sharon Pinkerton, A4A's senior vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs. She encouraged travelers to enroll in the TSA's paid PreCheck program, which offers special lanes and quicker screening, "as we move into another record-setting travel season."

Airlines for America recently started a website called ihatethewait.com, where travelers can tweet their airport locations and complaints to @AskTSA, and share photos of their waits in airport security lines, raising awareness of the issue and serving as crowd-sourced information.

Over the three-month period ending Aug. 31, the trade group expects an average of 95,500 more airline passengers a day than last summer. That includes fliers traveling overseas on U.S. carriers. To accommodate the record volumes, airlines will be offering 2.78 million seats a day, an increase of more than 100,000 seats a day from last summer, the group said.

"We saw airfares fall throughout 2015 and that trend continued in the first three months of 2016," said John Heimlich, the trade group's chief economist. "Air travel is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible."

First-quarter results for the 10 publicly traded U.S. airlines resulted in pretax earnings of $4.8 billion, resulting in a 13.2% pretax profit margin for the group. A year earlier, the pretax margin was 11.2%. Revenue was flat in the first quarter, as a 6.7% decline in fares offset traffic growth of 6.2%. Expenses slipped 1.5% as a 28.9% decline in fuel costs offset a 12.6% gain in labor expenses.

The data include Delta Air Lines Inc., which dropped out of the trade group last year over a disagreement about the lobbying direction taken by A4A. That leaves as members nine major airlines, including three cargo carriers.

Write to Susan Carey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 18, 2016 08:05 ET (12:05 GMT)

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