Fewer people will fly on Labor Day, airline group says

At last, some good news for fliers: Jets are expected to fly less full over the Labor Day weekend than they did last year over the holiday. So you should have a better chance of getting a seat and less chance of getting bumped. You may even get a break on fares. (OK, that’s asking a lot.)

The reason is falling demand. U.S. airlines expect to carry nearly 6% fewer passengers over the holiday period than they did last year, the Air Transport Assn. of America said today. In a news release, James C. May, president and chief executive of the industry trade group, blamed economic uncertainty and high energy prices for the falloff.

U.S. carriers can’t cut flights fast enough to keep up. American Airlines, the world’s biggest, said last week that its capacity in July was down 1.2% from a year ago, but traffic was down more — 3.5%. United Airlines reported similar figures. Southwest Airlines, which has bucked the trend and added flights, filled only 76% of its seats in July, compared with 81% a year ago. At LAX, which already lost some domestic service, foreign carriers are slashing now too.

As seats go empty, we’re seeing some great fare deals for fall. But what about Labor Day?

Is anyone out there finding good fares for holiday flights?

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photo: Customers in line around Labor Day 2007. Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 18, 2008 at 1:08 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Airline travel, Fall, Family & Kids, Frequent Flier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.