U.S. air traffic in October experienced a 5.6 percent increase compared to the previous year's rate, according to a recently released U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) report.According to the report, U.S. airlines carried 62.1 million scheduled domestic and international passengers last October with a passenger total 4 percent above that of two years ago in October 2008. However, it still remained 3.3 percent below the pre-recession level of October 2007.
BTS, a part of DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, also reported that U.S. airlines carried 4.9 percent more domestic passengers in October 2010 than in October 2009, while international passengers on U.S. carriers increased 11.8 percent.
Furthermore, last October's load factors of 83.1 percent systemwide - 83.4 percent domestic and 82.3 percent international - were the highest recorded for any October on record.
For the first 10 months of 2010, the number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines increased 2.0 percent compared to the same period in 2009, which recorded 603.6 million. The number of passengers, however, declined 4.5 percent from the first 10 months of 2008 to the first 10 months of 2010.
U.S. airlines also carried 1.4 percent more domestic passengers and 5.9 percent more international passengers in the first 10 months of 2010 than in 2009.
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