US Passenger Traffic Up 7.8% In April | Airline Travel News

The data recorded by the US Department of Transportation (DoT) indicate that airline traffic in April has seen an increase of 7.8% when compared to the traffic numbers recorded during the same period in 2022. Additionally, the seasonally adjusted data on passenger numbers indicate a 9.1% hike from April 2022 and a 3.4% increase from March 2023.

The Numbers

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) shows that the US-based carriers served 78.2 million passengers throughout the airlines’ scheduled domestic and international services in April of 2023. Though this is a 3.4% increase from the numbers reported in March, it still falls short of the all-time high of 80.9 million passengers recorded in January 2020 by 3.3%.

Of the 78.2 million recorded passengers, 68.2 million were domestic travelers, which was down 4.1% from the all-time high of 71 million recorded in January 2020. However, the remaining 10.05 million were international passengers on US carriers, reaching a new all-time high.

When compared to April 2020, which only saw a total of three million passengers (domestic and international combined), it is evident that the passenger market in the US has clearly rebounded and has almost recovered. Passenger numbers recorded in April 2023 show a hike of 2,496.5% from that recorded in April 2020.

Growth in the industry

While the post-pandemic passenger travel demand recovered rapidly, one of the issues faced by the carriers was staff shortages. However, in April 2023, an addition of over 2,800 jobs was seen across the US airline industry, which resulted in the employment rate being 8.4% higher than in April 2019.

The total number of workers employed by US carriers in April 2019 was 734,987, while in April 2023, this number…

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