US says post-Sept. 11 air travel recovery complete

Reuters ^ | February 28, 2006 | John Crawley

[West Coast Conservative]

The U.S. government released an optimistic forecast on Tuesday for commercial air-travel growth, prompting the nation's transportation chief to formally mark the end of the slide triggered by the 2001 attacks.

"For the first time in several years, we are no longer talking about recovery," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told a Federal Aviation Administration conference.

"It has been a steep climb since September 11, 2001. But as of the end of 2005, the number of passengers flying in the United States was 5.9 percent higher than before those horrific terrorist attacks," he said.

The hijack attacks on New York and Washington severely depressed air travel and facilitated the descent into bankruptcy of four major carriers between 2002 and 2005. But during the period, travel slowly rebounded as fierce competition produced consistently low fares.

The FAA said mainline and regional U.S. airlines boarded 669 million people in 2005, up 6.6 percent. The figure is expected to dip less than 1 percent in 2006 as big airlines continue to cut domestic flights and restructure their operations but then rebound with 3 percent growth annually between 2007-2011.

Total boardings are scheduled to reach 1 billion in 2015, the FAA said.

Herb Kelleher, the chairman of Southwest Airlines, said the government's business forecast was "probably realistic."

While travel has bounced back, several airlines continue to gasp financially due to sustained high fuel prices and weak revenue from budget fares.

The drop-off in revenue has also weakened receipts for the government program that funds the sprawling FAA-run air traffic control system.

The federal Aviation Trust Fund is fed mainly by ticket taxes and other fees paid by commercial airlines, the biggest of which have united behind a proposal for the government in coming years to impose a series of fees on all users of the air traffic system.

Details of the airlines' plan remain confidential pending the release of an FAA proposal this spring for overhauling financing of the aging air traffic system.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the changes would be fundamental. "The formula that gets us there just doesn't work anymore," she said.

Blakey's plan is expected to include a user fee component and cover operations by commercial airlines and general aviation, including private recreational pilots and corporate jets. It is unclear if the government would roll back ticket taxes.