The US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has released its monthly Transportation Indicators report showing that air carrier passenger revenue in the quarter ending in September declined from 2001 while freight revenue rose from the year before for the second consecutive quarter. Passenger revenue, adjusted for inflation, was down 7 percent from 2001, the sixth consecutive quarter of declines over the same quarter in the previous year. Inflation-adjusted freight revenue was up 8 percent in the third quarter from the third quarter of 2001 but did not offset the decline in passenger revenue. 

Airline passenger revenue in the third quarter was $9.7 billion, down from $10.4 billion in 2001.  Passenger revenue reached its highest level in the second quarter of 2000 at $13.2 billion. Freight revenue in the third quarter was $1.7 billion, up from $1.6 billion in 2001. Freight revenue reached its highest level in the fourth quarter of 2000 at $1.9 billion. 

BTS has issued the Transportation Indicators report monthly since September 2000 as an update of critical transportation information that details the impact of transportation on the nation’s economy and society.  The December report is the final Transportation Indicators. The full report is available at www.bts.gov, where BTS data will continue to be posted regularly.

Other trends highlighted in this month’s report are:

• Air carriers lost an amount equal to 5 percent of their assets for the year ending in September, the lowest 12-month yield in the 10 years tracked by this report.
• Large U.S. passenger carriers’ scheduled operations increased 2 percent in October from October 2001, the first year-to-year increase since August 2001.
• The producer price of scheduled air freight transportation increased nearly 12 percent in October from October 2001— reaching the second highest level in the 10 years tracked by this report.
• The cost of air travel to consumers was 2 percent lower in October than in September.
• Employment in for-hire air transportation decreased 0.35 percent in November from October, falling to the lowest level since December 1997.
• Jet fuel prices in October reached 80 cents per gallon, the highest level since February 2001.

FMI: www.bts.gov