Airlines have been trimming their schedules to account for sluggish recent activity, but the region’s three commercial airports still have more seat availability for fliers than at the same point a year before.
Washington Dulles International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport each will have more airline seats in the third quarter compared to the same period a year before, according to new data from Cirium reported Aug. 14 by the Airlines for America trade organization.
But in each case, the year-over-year growth rate will be less than had been projected when initial July-August-September airline seats were calculated by Cirium in late May:
• At Reagan National, there will be 1.7 percent more airline seats during the quarter than a year before. The earlier projection had been 2.3 percent.
• At Dulles, the year-over-year increase of 3.7 percent is down a tick from the earlier projection of 3.8 percent.
• At BWI, the 3.9 percent increase is down from the previously anticipated 5.2 percent.
A healthy majority of the nation’s 64 largest commercial airports are seeing year-over-year growth in available seats for the third quarter, including nine posting double-digit increases.
Pittsburgh International leads the pack with a projected third-quarter-to-third-quarter increase of 14.9 percent, although that was down from the expected 18.6 percent when initial projections were made in May. Palm Beach International (+13.7%) and Philadelphia International (+13.1%) join Pittsburgh atop the pack.
The expected number of passengers is softening in part because the public is wary about future economic conditions. Thus, airlines are pulling back on seat availability to prop up prices. This comes as airlines both have staffed up and, under threat of labor action, begun bestowing new contracts with healthy raises on employees.
Airlines for America notes that current employment in the U.S. airline industry (517,500) is the highest it has been since slightly before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.