by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:14 PM ET, Thu March 15, 2018
A study from industry trade group Airlines for America (A4A) revealed a record number of passengers are expected to fly globally on United States airlines between March 1 and April 30.
The record-breaking number of 150.7 million would be a four-percent increase from the 145 million passengers who flew in the spring of 2017. Airlines are preparing for the surge in travelers by adding 114,000 seats per day across their networks.
The surge in travelers this spring will come after airlines transported a record number of passengers and marked the safest year in aviation history in 2017. Domestic airfares also dropped, with airlines boosting staffing levels and taking new aircraft deliveries at the rate of approximately one plane per day.
As a way to continue building on the success of the airline industry last year, carriers are investing heavily in their products and their employees. Over the last seven years, airlines spent 75 percent of operating cash flow ($102.4 billion) on product enhancements, including new planes, in-flight Wi-Fi, entertainment systems, renovated airport lounges and upgraded security lanes at airport checkpoints.
"Travelers are taking to the skies this spring in record numbers, thanks to persistently low fares, unsurpassed levels of investment in the product, increasing competition, and unprecedented access for passengers of all regions, age groups, and income levels," A4A Vice President John Heimlich said in a statement. "An expanding economy, employment gains, and surging household net worth are also contributing to the growth in demand for air travel. There has never been a better time to fly, as evidenced by the record number of 151 million flyers expected to travel this spring."
Carriers in the U.S. have also hired employees at double the rate of other industries in America, with December 2017 marking the 50th-consecutive month of job growth for the airline industry.
Add in the competition across the airline industry and the affordability of air travel, and A4A revealed 88 percent of Americans have now flown during their lifetime and 48 percent flew at least once in 2017.
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