Advertisement

Airlines expect record 17.5M travelers over Labor Day holiday

By Danielle Haynes
Travelers wait at a security checkpoint at Ronald Reagan National airport in Arlington, Va. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Travelers wait at a security checkpoint at Ronald Reagan National airport in Arlington, Va. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A record number of travelers will take airline flights over the Labor Day holiday, an aviation trade group said Tuesday.

Airlines for America said it expects 17.5 million people to use U.S. airlines over the travel period between Aug. 28 and Sept. 3 -- a 4 percent increase over the same time period last year, which saw 16.9 million people fly.

Advertisement

"With fares at historic lows and customer satisfaction at historic highs, travelers continue to take to the skies in record numbers," said A4A President and Chief Economist John Heimlich.

The busiest day during the period is expected to be Aug. 30, A4A said, when airlines are likely to fly nearly 3 million passengers. Airlines are adding additional flights to the schedules to accommodate an extra 95,000 daily passengers during the week.

The record-breaking figures come despite the nationwide grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 and May 9 aircraft. American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines all fly the models, which remain barred as Boeing creates a fix for a problem linked to deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

The airlines extended their groundings of the planes through November.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines