Summer air travel will hit record high, industry group says
Diamond Resorts CEO Mike Flaskey on the state of the travel sector and the impact of Trump administration policies on the economy and U.S. consumers.
Airline travel this summer is expected to heat up — with another record for summer travel likely imminent, the airline industry’s U.S. trade group predicted Tuesday.
An estimated 257.4 million travelers will fly on U.S. carriers between June 1 and Aug. 31, Airlines for America says. That’s equivalent to around 2.8 million flyers each day, a 3.4 percent jump from last year.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average inflation-adjusted price for a domestic ticket has dropped for four straight years to the lowest level since the agency began tracking the fare prices in 1995, although those numbers don't include the extra fees airlines now charge.
The trade group says airlines are adding 111,000 seats per day, more than the predicted 93,000 increase in daily passengers.
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“With airlines offering low fares and reinvesting billions of dollars in their product, there’s never been a better time to fly. This summer, U.S. airlines expect travelers to take to the skies in record numbers,” John Heimlich, Airline for America's vice president, said in a statement announcing the prediction. “Air travel is the nation’s safest form of transportation, and it is now more affordable than ever before. U.S. carriers are making airline flights more and more accessible, so it’s no surprise that more and more Americans are flying.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.