by Donald Wood
Last updated: 11:55 AM ET, Tue May 21, 2019
Industry trade organization Airlines for America (A4A) announced it expects a record 257.4 million passengers to travel on United States airlines this summer.
The 2019 expectations are up 3.4 percent from last summer's record of 248.8 million passengers.
With an average of 2.8 million passengers per day expected to travel between June 1 and August 31, A4A said carriers are adding 111,000 seats per day to accommodate the additional 93,000 daily passengers forecasted during the summer travel period.
"With airlines offering low fares and reinvesting billions of dollars in their product, there's never been a better time to fly," A4A Vice President John Heimlich said in a statement. "This summer, U.S. airlines expect travelers to take to the skies in record numbers."
"Air travel is the nation's safest form of transportation, and it is now more affordable than ever before," Heimlich continued. "U.S. carriers are making airline flights more and more accessible, so it's no surprise that more and more Americans are flying."
A4A officials also revealed this year would be the 10th consecutive summer to see an increase in the number of U.S. airline passengers.
In addition, inflation-adjusted airfares declined for a fourth consecutive year in 2018, with the average domestic fare dropping to $350. Prices are down 15.9 percent from 2014, which is the lowest average inflation-adjusted fare since records started to be kept in 1995.
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