3 percent more passengers to fly over Labor Day holiday

Seating capacity slightly outpaced passenger traffic in the first half of the year, with planes 82.8 percent full on average, down from 83.2 percent during the same period last year.

Airlines for America is projecting as many as 14.2 million people flying over the Labor Day holiday – between September 2 and September 8 – a three percent jump from last year’s figures.

The busiest day will likely be Friday, September 4, ahead of Labor Day on Monday, September 7.

If you’re planning to fly during the Labor Day period, Albany worldwide Airport spokesman Doug Myers suggests you arrive at the ticket counter at least 90 minutes before your flight departs, and that if you haven’t flown in some time, to reacquaint yourself with what you can and can’t bring through the security checkpoints.

Carriers are responding to this holiday’s expected uptick by boosting seat availability, he said.

Airlines’ on-time arrival rate in the first half of 2015 – 77.2 percent – is up 3.5 percentage points compared to the same period in 2014, A4A said today, attributing the improvement to “investments in systems, procedures and staffing”, as well as “more benign weather”.

Operating revenues for airlines remained relatively flat, as a 3% decline in fares offset a 3% increase in passengers.

“Six years post-recession, airlines are finally realizing profit margins that are on par with the S & P 500 average, a barometer of U.S. corporate performance”, the group’s Chief Economist John Heimlich said.

US airlines more than doubled their collective net profit for the first half of 2015 to approximately $8.7 billion, according to Airlines for America (A4A). This translated to a net margin of 11.2 percent, or roughly 11 cents on every dollar of revenue, up from the 4.9 percent margin reported in the first half of 2014.

The ten airlines also reinvested $8.5 billion in benefits to customers, A4A says.