Fill out this form to email this article to a friend

Your name		Your email
Recipient email	You may enter up to 20 multiple email addresses, separated by commas.
Your message
Validation Code	Hear validation code
	Enter validation code

We were unable to send your email.

Click here to try again.

Expect fewer passengers, packed flights this summer

By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: May 13, 2008 11:58 AM

Story Tools E-mail this story Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story Social Bookmarking Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Del.icio.us Newsvine

ADVERTISEMENT

Slightly fewer passengers will fly this summer because of the sagging economy and less seats available on domestic routes, the trade group for major U.S. airlines said Tuesday.

The Air Transport Association forecast that 211.5-million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31, down 2.7-million or nearly 1.3 percent from the same period last year.

Even with fewer passengers and flights, airlines face a "challenging" summer with delays from congested airspace around the New York metropolitan area and seasonal storms, said ATA president James May.

Also, airplanes will be packed, with an average 85 percent of all seats full. That will make it difficult for carriers to quickly rebook passengers on canceled flights.

"We hope summer travel will be an uneventful,'' said Greg Principato, president of Airports Council International, the trade group for U.S. airports. "But it's unlikely it will be uneventful.''

Airlines hope to experience fewer delays than last summer with improvements to the busy air space over New York, which cause of nearly half of all delays nationwide, said May. His group is lobbying the federal government to open up military air space off the east and west coasts for commercial flights.