The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) reported a welcomed 4 percent gain in sales for September 2008 of $6.5 billion with year-to-date (YTD) sales up 3.3 percent to $64.4 billion. Domestic fares increased 1.6 percent to $2.9 billion, a 0.4 percent gain YTD. Domestic transactions declined 7 percent for the month and 7 percent YTD.
International fares grew 2.7 percent to $2.5 billion and 3.9 percent YTD to $26 billion. International transactions declined 2.8 percent for September and 1.3 percent YTD. ARC said 17,914 agency locations reported for the month in addition to 1,238 satellite ticketing locations. Average daily sales were reported at $11,361. Taxes and fees increased 15.8 percent for the month and 11.1 percent YTD.
ARC cautioned that the comparison of transaction and dollar volume on September 2008 to September 2007 is rather more favorable than was the case a month ago when ARC compared August 2008 to August 2007.
“This disparity is due, in no small part, to the number of weekends falling within the given calendar month," ARC said. "Last month, we compared a four-weekend '07 month to a five-weekend '08 month whereas this month, the opposite is true. Weekdays are significantly more productive days than are weekends resulting in rather significant differences if the number of working days vary in the month when comparing year over year”
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