Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) released data showing that ARC-accredited travel agencies experienced a $1 billion year-over-year decrease in air ticket sales for the month of February.
The consolidated dollar value of tickets sold by agencies last month totaled $7.2 billion, a 12.4% decrease when compared to February 2019.
The total number of passenger trips settled by ARC for its agency customers decreased by 3.9% to 24,859,327 compared to 25,868,150 in February 2019. U.S. domestic trips increased by 1.3% YOY, but due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak outside of the U.S., international passenger trips fell 12% YOY. The average U.S. round-trip ticket price last month was $488, a $2 increase over February 2019.
Despite the drop in overall ticket sales and passenger trips, Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) sales in February rose 24% to $7.9 million YOY. EMD transaction volume increased by 38.6% over February 2019, totaling 136 million.
More detailed information is available on ARC’s website.
