US airlines seeing fewer passengers in 2009

Volume down 10.3% this year

Steve Hawley, Jun 16, 09.

US airlines are seeing noticeably fewer passengers this year than in 2008, according to US Department of Transportation numbers reported by Streetsblog San Francisco. In March, US air carriers served 61 million passengers, a decline of 9.1 percent from March 2008, and the number of international passengers fell 12.3 percent. Streetsblog notes that this is the 13th consecutive month that flying has decreased in popularity. Overall, US air traffic was down 10.3 percent in the first three months of the year.

The article notes:

Airlines in Canada and Europe are preparing to see similar declines in passenger traffic, which is sure to send the industry into a tizzy. But the decline in air travel, much like the decline in vehicle miles traveled, also could be an environmental boon given the high per-passenger emissions rate for plane riders.