BTS | BTS Releases April Airline Traffic Data;Domestic Airlines Carried 47.4 Million Passengers in April 2003

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BTS Releases April Airline Traffic Data; Domestic Airlines Carried 47.4 Million Passengers in April 2003

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BTS 14-03
Dave Smallen
202-366-5568

Monday, July 7, 2003 -- U.S. airlines carried 47.4 million domestic passengers in April, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today in a release of preliminary data. Effective October 2002, commuter and small certificated carriers were required to begin reporting domestic enplaned data. The addition of this new data has a distorting effect on year-over-year domestic enplanement comparisons, but represents the new way that this data will be announced (affected data shown in bold).

The April 2003 data include 3,163,281 domestic enplanements that were reported by these relatively new reporting carriers. Thus, the same carrier year over year comparison in April 2003 would total 44,234,664 domestic enplanements this year or a 2.6 percent decrease compared to the prior year's April results.

Total domestic enplanements were 3.8 percent lower in April 2003 compared to March 2003 for all domestic flights operated by U.S. airlines. Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal factors.

Table 1. Industry Domestic Enplanements

Excel | CSV

Month	2001	2002	2003
January	44,107,354	38,557,439	43,067,895
February	43,177,091	38,644,426	40,981,396
March	53,054,589	48,501,883	49,292,829
April	50,791,568	45,437,147	47,397,945
May	51,119,648	47,114,281
June	53,471,052	49,188,600
July	55,802,826	51,155,839
August	56,404,948	51,226,483
September	30,546,412	40,223,878
October	40,290,718	48,273,424
November	40,691,635	44,226,121
December	40,901,001	49,864,516
Year to Date	191,130,602	171,140,895	180,740,065
Annual	560,358,842	552,414,037

Source: T-100 Domestic Market

Additional airline traffic data can be found on the BTS website at TranStats, the Intermodal Transportation Database at http://transtats.bts.gov. Click on "aviation", then on "Air Carrier Statistics (Form 41 Traffic)", then click on "T-100 Domestic Market."

Table 2. Top 10 Airlines, ranked by April 2003 Domestic Enplanements

Excel | CSV

Rank	Airline Name	Airline Code	April 2002	March 2003	April 2003	April 2002 Rank
1	Delta Airlines, Inc.	DL	7,012,477	6,974,199	6,160,049	1
2	Southwest Airlines, Co.	WN	6,074,278	6,332,410	6,137,024	3
3	American Airlines, Inc.	AA	6,429,205	6,310,554	5,907,580	2
4	United Airlines, Inc.	UA	4,643,663	4,844,612	4,537,823	4
5	Northwest Airlines, Inc.	NW	3,592,418	3,907,410	3,500,259	6
6	US Airways, Inc.	US	4,013,645	3,321,963	3,227,126	5
7	Continental Airlines, Inc.	CO	2,754,391	2,686,997	2,521,969	7
8	America West Airlines, Inc.	HP	1,559,125	1,668,638	1,593,759	8
9	American Eagle Airlines, Inc.	MQ	910,959	1,027,069	1,027,404	10
10	Alaska Airlines, Inc.	AS	983,096	1,000,331	991,258	9

Source: T-100 Domestic Market

Table 3. Top 10 Airports ranked by April 2003 Domestic Enplanements

Excel | CSV

Rank	Airport Name	Airport Code	April 2002	March 2003	April 2003	April 2002 Rank
1	Hartsfield International, Atlanta	ATL	2,932,581	3,053,924	2,843,101	1
2	O'Hare International, Chicago	ORD	2,058,100	2,295,260	2,295,537	2
3	Dallas-Ft.Worth International	DFW	1,818,875	1,982,729	1,814,101	3
4	Los Angeles International	LAX	1,520,198	1,597,826	1,552,962	4
5	Phoenix Sky Harbor International	PHX	1,364,657	1,630,532	1,501,934	5
6	Las Vegas-McCarran International	LAS	1,306,497	1,437,742	1,336,595	6
7	Denver International	DEN	1,257,436	1,440,291	1,246,915	7
8	Detroit Metro Wayne County	DTW	1,106,830	1,123,357	1,161,583	9
9	Minneapolis-St. Paul International	MSP	1,084,157	1,246,407	1,118,582	11
10	Orlando International	MCO	1,109,381	1,163,844	1,070,809	8

Source: T-100 Domestic Market

Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics by commercial air carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and freight traffic. April traffic data are preliminary and include data received by BTS as of July 1. Data are subject to revision.

Revised April data are posted on the BTS website at http://transtats.bts.gov. BTS will release May traffic data on Aug. 5.