A4A predicts 28.5 million passengers for Thanksgiving
Trade group Airlines for America has forecast a modest 3% increase in air travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday period.
It projects a total of 28.5 million passengers will travel on US airlines during the 12-day period, from Friday, November 17 through Tuesday, November 28.
It says the busiest day will be Sunday, November 26, with about 2.88 million passengers taking to the skies.
As usual, the quietest day is expected to be Thanksgiving Day itself – Thursday, November 23.
"Airline passengers continue to benefit from the highly competitive air-service landscape this holiday season, as low fares and increased availability of seats continue to make air travel widely accessible," said A4A vice president and chief economist John Heimlich.
The trade group again took the opportunity to tout higher employment in the industry and improved operation performance.
It also again ramped up opposition to a proposed hike in the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) being considered by Congress.
"There is no justification to ask travelers to pay more when airports are sitting on billions of dollars they aren’t using now. If airports are determined to further pad their coffers at the expense of travelers, they should own it and collect it themselves rather than burying an unjustified tax hike in the price of an airline ticket," said A4A’s senior vice president of legislative and regulatory policy, Sharon Pinkerton.
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