Airline travel up last December

The number of U.S. airline passengers in December was up 2.9 percent from the same time period the previous year, according to statistics released Thursday by the Department of Transportation.
 
There were 58.6 million domestic and international airline passengers in December 2010, compared to 57 million in December 2009. That was up 2.1 percent from December 2008, but even last year’s increase did not top pre-recession numbers from December 2007, when 60.8 million people traveled by airplane.
 
Still, the uptick is another small sign the economy may be turning around. Altogether there were 720.4 million air travelers in 2010, a 2.4 percent increase over 2009.

Southwest Airlines carried the most domestic passengers in December, totaling 8.9 million. American Airlines led in international travel, carrying 1.7 million people overseas.
 
For the year, Delta Airlines led both domestic and international travel, with almost 11.1 billion domestic “enplaned passengers” — which includes trips with layovers (meaning they're counting each time a person boards a plane — and 20.9 million international enplanements.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport was the busiest airport in December, with 3.4 million passengers. It was followed by Dallas/Fort Worth, with 2.2 million travelers. For the year, Atlanta led with 42.5 billion, followed by Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, with 30 billion.