US airlines expect record numbers of passengers over Labour Day long weekend
US airlines are gearing up for one of the busiest weekends of the Northern hemisphere’s summer travel season. The US Labour Day holiday, which falls on the first Monday of September – this year that’s 4 September – marks the final long travel weekend of the season. Most schools and universities will have begun their new sessions by the first week of the month. Chicago-based United Airlines said on 24 August that it’s preparing for “a record-breaking Labour Day holiday” with about 2.8m guests expected to fly on the carrier’s aircraft. Travel demand is up 13%, the company adds, and will surpass pre-pandemic levels. “The biggest trend we’re seeing this year is that more people are sneaking in an international trip before the end of summer: bookings for international travel over the Labour Day holiday period are up 35% versus 2019 and up 29% compared to last year,” United says. “And – like other long holiday weekends post-pandemic – more people are flying to their vacation destination earlier and leaving later.” The number of people flying on the Friday before Labour Day is down “slightly” compared to 2019 – but demand is up on both the Thursday before the holiday and the Tuesday after, the airline adds. American Airlines, meanwhile, says it is expecting to welcome “nearly 3.5m customers across nearly 32,000 scheduled flights — a schedule that’s about 20% larger than our closest competitor”. The busiest travel days are forecast to be 31 August and 1 September, the Fort Worth-based carrier says. The airline has in excess of 5,800 flights scheduled for each of those days. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines says it estimates it will fly between 3.3 and 3.4m passengers over the five-day holiday period. That would be an average of about 550,000 per day. During the same period last year the carrier transported nearly 2.9m customers, and about 3.1m in 2019. Alaska Airlines adds that it expects to transport 700,000 passengers, up 8% from last year. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-09-01/general/us-airlines-expect-record-numbers-of-passengers-over-labour-day-long-weekend
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US airlines expect record numbers of passengers over Labour Day long weekend
US airlines are gearing up for one of the busiest weekends of the Northern hemisphere’s summer travel season. The US Labour Day holiday, which falls on the first Monday of September – this year that’s 4 September – marks the final long travel weekend of the season. Most schools and universities will have begun their new sessions by the first week of the month. Chicago-based United Airlines said on 24 August that it’s preparing for “a record-breaking Labour Day holiday” with about 2.8m guests expected to fly on the carrier’s aircraft. Travel demand is up 13%, the company adds, and will surpass pre-pandemic levels. “The biggest trend we’re seeing this year is that more people are sneaking in an international trip before the end of summer: bookings for international travel over the Labour Day holiday period are up 35% versus 2019 and up 29% compared to last year,” United says. “And – like other long holiday weekends post-pandemic – more people are flying to their vacation destination earlier and leaving later.” The number of people flying on the Friday before Labour Day is down “slightly” compared to 2019 – but demand is up on both the Thursday before the holiday and the Tuesday after, the airline adds. American Airlines, meanwhile, says it is expecting to welcome “nearly 3.5m customers across nearly 32,000 scheduled flights — a schedule that’s about 20% larger than our closest competitor”. The busiest travel days are forecast to be 31 August and 1 September, the Fort Worth-based carrier says. The airline has in excess of 5,800 flights scheduled for each of those days. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines says it estimates it will fly between 3.3 and 3.4m passengers over the five-day holiday period. That would be an average of about 550,000 per day. During the same period last year the carrier transported nearly 2.9m customers, and about 3.1m in 2019. Alaska Airlines adds that it expects to transport 700,000 passengers, up 8% from last year. <br/>
