The Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC), in its release of April air sales figures, said that the consolidated dollar value of airline tickets sold by U.S.-based travel agencies increased 6.37 percent year-over-year in the first four months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, and 15 percent over the same period in 2010.

Airline ticket sales through January through April totaled $31 billion, up from $29.2 billion in 2011, and $26.9 billion in 2010. Year-to-date passenger segments for the first four months of 2012 increased slightly by 0.90 percent to 117.5 million segments compared to 116.4 million in 2011, while reflecting a 1.78 percent decrease compared with the same period in 2010.

ARC said transactions were flat for January through April 2012, up just 0.66 percent compared to the same period in 2011, but down 1 percent compared to the same period in 2010.

Total sales for April were $7,767,575,715, up 5.78 percent from the same month last year. Total transactions were 12,484,907, down 0.37. Domestic fares in April were $3,271,895,462, up 5.54 percent, while international fares were $3,008,760,428, down 0.94 from the same month last year, Total fares were up to $6.2 billion or 2.33 percent in April and up 2.64 percent to $25.1 billion year to date. The number of retail locations dropped to 13,896, compared with 13,914 reported in March. Average daily sales per location for April were $16,298.