Airline traffic fell 8.4 percent in September

The number of passengers on U.S. airlines fell 8.4 percent in September, a decline of 5 million passengers from the year-earlier month, the Transportation Department said Thursday in the latest evidence of weakening travel demand.

The department said preliminary findings indicate that 54.2 million passengers rode on domestic or international flights operated by U.S. airlines in September. It was the seventh straight monthly decline from the same month in 2007.

Miles flown by paying customers, a key indicator in the airline industry, fell 6.9 percent as the average trip was longer than a year ago, the department said.

The report also showed the effect of airline cutbacks that picked up in September, when carriers cut capacity to deal with then-high fuel prices. In September, U.S. airlines operated 9.4 percent fewer flights than a year earlier.

The preliminary figures from the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics confirmed reports from the carriers themselves about weakening travel demand. Airline officials have said the sharpest declines occurred in October and November, after the most recent government figures were compiled.

The number of U.S. passengers in the first nine months of the year has fallen 2.1 percent compared with the same period of 2007.

For September, Southwest Airlines Co. continued to carry the most passengers, 7.4 million. However, Delta Air Lines Inc. and its newly acquired Northwest Airlines unit together carried 9.1 million passengers.

Among U.S. carriers, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines carried the most international passengers, at 1.5 million, although Delta and Northwest together carried more, 1.8 million. UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. each carried more than 800,000 international passengers.

The busiest U.S. airport in the first nine months of the year was Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International, followed by Chicago's O'Hare Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.