ARC reports that U.S. travel agents started the New Year with strong air ticket sales, with the consolidated dollar value of airline tickets sold by U.S.-based agencies up 10.7 percent in the first month of 2012 compared to January 2011.
This is a promising 22.3 percent increase over the same period in 2010. January 2012 ticket sales totaled $7.3 billion, compared to $6.6 billion in 2011 and $5.9 billion in 2010, ARC reports.
Year-to-date passenger segments in January 2012 fell 2.3 percent – at 27.7 million segments, compared to 28.3 million in January 2011 – while reflecting a slight .86 percent decrease over the same period in 2010. ARC says.
Ticket transactions in January 2012 were up, at 3.2 percent compared to the same period in 2011, and 5.4 percent over the same period in 2010.
ARC's report is based on sales data ending January 31, 2012 from 14,014 U.S. retail and corporate travel agencies, satellite ticket printing offices and online travel agencies.
It does not include sales of tickets purchased directly from airlines. ARC also notes that total sales are equal to the total amount paid for a ticket, which includes taxes and fees.
ARC notes that more than 14,000 travel agencies and 190 airlines use the company’s transaction settlement services that, in 2011, totaled more than $82 billion in value.
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