Airline ticket sales remained down in July

Airline ticket sales through Arlington, Va.-based Airlines Reporting Corp. continued to be well down in July compared to the year-ago period, but the number of transactions was off less than 1% year-over-year and credit card sales transactions actually rose 2.6%. Total sales including airfares, taxes and fees were $5.65 billion, down 16.7% compared to July 2008, following a 20.3% year-over-year decline in June. Total fares sank 17.7% to $4.81 billion, slightly improved over the 21.3% decline in June. Domestic fares dropped 14.9% to $2.72 billion on a 0.24% fall in transactions and international fares were down 20% to $2.09 billion on a 2.3% decrease in transactions.

ARC Director-Strategic Communications Allan Muten said, "We're pretty pleased with the swing in transactions." But he added that "clearly the dollars and yields are not where they need to be." He observed that the improving trend in sales also reflects the fact that the US economy started heading down last summer. He noted that ARC now has a record 180 participating carriers. Air Botswana joined yesterday and prior to that, Zambezi Airlines. The privately owned Lusaka, Zambia-based carrier commenced operations last year, according to ARC, operating to Johannesburg from Lusaka, Ndola and Livingstone and to Dar es Salaam from Lusaka with 737-500s.