Airlines expect 15.6M passengers for Labor Day
Flying somewhere this Labor Day weekend?
Don’t count on having an empty seat beside you on the plane, or much room for your carry-on in the overhead bin.
During the upcoming seven-day Labor Day travel holiday (Wednesday, Aug. 31, through Tuesday, Sept. 6), U.S. airlines expect 15.6 million passengers to take to the skies, according to the airline industry trade group Airlines for America (A4A).
That’s a 4% increase over the 2015 Labor Day holiday period.
A4A expects 2.23 million people to be flying each day during the Labor Day travel week, up 82,000 passengers a day over the same period last year.
Friday, Sept. 2, and Thursday, Sept. 1, are expected to be the busiest travel days, respectively. And A4A predicts that Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, respectively, will see the most traffic.
One reason passenger loads may be up this Labor Day holiday is that airfares are down.
A4A said fares were down 5.2% system-wide in 2015 and are down 6% so far this year.
And while fares are down, airline pre-tax profits are up.
A4A reports that ten U.S. passenger airlines — Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, United and Virgin America — collectively reported a pre-tax profit of about $12 billion.
That’s up from $11.3 billion during the same period in 2015, said A4A, and translates to a profit margin of 15.5 cents on every dollar of revenue, with lower fuel prices to thank for helping to offset increased labor, aircraft and airport costs.
What are airlines doing with all that profit?
A4A said that in the first half of 2016, these ten airlines collectively reinvested $9 billion on customer enhancements, including new airplanes with better Wi-Fi and larger overhead bins and, at airports, better check-in areas, more robust Wi-Fi and improved ground equipment and baggage systems.
Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and Paste BN Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.