The seven-day Labor Day travel period is considered to be September 2 through September 8, the organization said.
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It’s going to be busy at the nation’s airports during the Labor Day weekend period.
The busiest day will likely be Friday, September 4, ahead of Labor Day on Monday, September 7.
The report accompanies earlier predictions that June 1 to August. 31 of 215 would be the busiest summer in the history of U.S. Air Travel. “With capacity increasing and airfares trending downward, air travel continues to be more accessible and a bargain for cost-conscience consumers”.
The collective six-month net income, which includes earnings results from 10 publicly traded mainline US passenger airlines, was a significant improvement over a net profit of $3.9 billion recorded by the carriers in the first half of 2014. Operating revenues, however, have remained flat compared to 2014, with a three percent decline in fare revenue being offset by a three percent increase in passengers. Those investments may not have impressed everyone; airline complaints over the first half of 2015 increased 20 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
To accommodate the additional passengers and meet demand, airlines boosted their schedules with more flights and larger planes, the group said.
“Six years post-recession, airlines are finally realizing profit margins that are on par with the S & P 500 average, a barometer of U.S. corporate performance”, the group’s Chief Economist John Heimlich said.
U.S. airlines are receiving new and refurbished aircraft at a rate of almost one per day. Additionally, from the first half of 2014 to the first five months of 2015, U.S. passenger airlines collectively added 7,300 employees to their payrolls, marking the 18th consecutive month of year-over-year employment gains.
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Passenger complaints have also increased significantly.
