While cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages haveencouraged many to fly, a very tough winter has made that difficult forsome. Fortunately the weather is gettingbetter and predictions call for a record number of passengers flying thisspring.
Over 129 million people (2.1 million per day) are expectedto take domestic flights in March and April, according to Airlines for America,an industry trade group that represents nine domestic carriers.
An additional 17.1 million people are forecasted to takeinternational flights on U.S. airlines in March and April.
The increase in spring air travel is being attributed tothe rising U.S. household net worth, an improving economy, and the overallaffordability of air travel. The firsttwo months of this year were very difficult for airlines as travel was negativelyimpacted by a series of snow storms and bitter cold.
Year to date over 78,000 flights have been cancelled,costing the airlines tens of millions of dollars. As rough as the winter weather has been, ithas had little impact on the overall profitability of U.S. airlines.
U.S. airlines have been able to remain profitable becausethe percentage of seats filled on planes has remained relatively high and theairlines continued ability to collect several billion dollars annually inancillary fees.
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