BTS Releases January 2011 Airline Traffic Data; System Traffic Up 2.2 Percent from January 2010
Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported that U.S. airlines carried 53.7 million scheduled domestic and international passengers in January 2011. This is a 2.2 percent increase from January 2010. The January 2011 passenger total was 3.7 percent above that of two years ago in January 2009 but still remained 6.9 percent below the early recession level of 57.7 million in January 2008.
BTS, a part of DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, also reported in a release of preliminary data that U.S. airlines carried 1.8 percent more domestic passengers in January 2011 than in January 2010. The number of international passengers on U.S. carriers in January 2011 increased 4.8 percent over January 2010. The January 2011 load factors of 76.5 percent systemwide and 76.6 percent domestic were the highest recorded for any January.
Additional traffic numbers can be found on the BTS website in the Airline Industry box. Click on a link in the column on the right. For more historic numbers, see Traffic on the BTS website.
See BTS Air Traffic Release for summary tables and additional data.
